o/t what are they going to do with all this ?

[davidh]

im talking about "facebook". its a good way to tell the world about yourself, who you are related to, even third and forth relatives, what you like, what you drink, who your friends are, etc, etc, etc.

my paranoid mind wonders what the hell this is all about. in a few years, mostly all the younge people from all over the world will have connected to facebook, and all this info is at the fingertips of who ever owns this thing.

are they going to use it to keep tabs on everyone like a number tatooed on your arm ? or just sell it to suppliers so they can target you for shopping or whatever. . . ? or sell it to the government so they can track you ?

am i over paranoid or what ? it has caused me a couple sleepless nights, and im already on the dang thing. . . have admitted to 50 or so relatives even the distant ones that have signed up on it and now im wishing i had not done anything.. .. or even joined the group. .

there must be smarter folks than i that have opinions of this. . . .

davidh
the old guy

[dp]

Be paranoid - it's not a bad thing. Google "facebook identity theft" - here's a partial return:

http://www.macworld.com/article/59488/2007/08/facebook.html

http://redtape.msnbc.com/2009/01/post-1.html

And it's so bad that Facebook has an official Facebook Identity Theft page:

http://www.facebook.com/FightIDTheft?_fb_noscript=1

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/02/05/facebook.impostors/index.html

[Mcgyver]

chatting with some friends who are at big firms and they told me they now regularly look at applicants facebook accounts as part of the interview process. Make sure your kids don't put anything on facebook they wouldn't want their mother, principal or interview seeing.

its a different age and kids have to taught differently. anything you right down (electronically) is potentially there for ever for everyone to see

[KiddZimaHater]

Yet another reason why i've never wasted my time joining Facebook, MySpace, or the latest fad, Twitter.
I actually have things to do AWAY from the computer.

[tony ennis]

I actually have things to do AWAY from the computer.

What do you mean? Away from ... the computer? NOOOoooOOoOoOooo!11212

[chief]

Freedom and privacy are the two things to be valued most in life, guard them wisely.

[Berniep]

If you are patient Facebook will go away just like myspace.
There is always something new and better. Heck even Twitter is almost hack now. But yes everyone will be searchable online eventually. There will be ways of protecting your identity is will just take some getting used to. Just like locking you doors at night. Basic security will include you cyberpresence.

[.RC.]

I can never understand the reason people start facebook/myspace accounts...

[Davek0974]

I can never understand the reason people start facebook/myspace accounts...

I started mine simply to plug my website and sell my products, its not much better but its free.

There are no personal address details on facebook so should be relatively safe, no picture of me either.

Dave

[bobw53]

I'll take a stab as somebody that has recently been suckered into the facebook thing.

I've come in contact with a bunch of people that I had lost contact with and wondered "where the hell did they go?". That was nice. People that I do stay in contact in with but don't talk to or see often, get a glimpse at whats up with them. And people like the stupid games. Share pics, lets people babble on about their kids and how cute they are(which is easily ignored).

Not as bad as that myspace thing which I only joined to spy on a girlfriends daughter(at the request of the mother, not because I'm a sick bastard). That I don't understand. Insane, some of the stuff people(mostly kids) put up on there, I guess you could do the same with facebook, but it seems more toned down and family or adult oriented.

Some people get a little nuts with it, "This is my third dump today, light mustard brown, smelled like Alpo, approximately 14.5oz, it contained 3 corn kernels and 7 chili seeds"

Facebook is basically a message board with people that you know, not much different from here, and only the people that you know can see your stuff, so it can be fairly private, unless you don't want it to be.

I've actually been pleasantly surprised.

As for being paranoid? Yeah, thats a lot of info, its probably not useful, and if your afraid of somebody not hiring you because you "had a good time at the lake this weekend" then you probably are paranoid.

[Doc Nickel]

I can never understand the reason people start facebook/myspace accounts...

-It's the "Hey Everybody, Look At Me!" aspect.

Whole books could be written to deconstruct the drive- everything from self-esteem issues to extroversion, involving everything from compensation issues to misplaced anger, and even textbook cases of the dichotomy of wanting public adolation ("everyone wants to be the hero") but being deathly afraid of public speaking- which itself involves more subtle aspects like how a person can become more outgoing or less inhibited simply by wearing a mask.

But to simplify it, it's digital graffitti for most people- the younger ones especially.

In the early days of the internet, it was AOL homepages, and Geocities, Angelfire and Xoom personal webpages. Modern sites like MySpace and FaceBook are the same thing- nothing more than a personal homepage- just easier.

Back in the Geo/Angel days, you had to know some HTML, or at the very least use one of a limited few "template" pages that didn't allow much past changing the background and font colors. Now you just have to sign up, log in, and start typing.

Everyone loves kudos. A person builds his page, tells a few friends, get the equivalent of an electronic pat on the back. It's built into our mammal brain, and we do it here, too- post a pic of a new part or tool or junkyard score, and enjoy a bit of vicarious, if a bit anonymous, electronic kudos.

Those damn endorphins.

Yes, there's lots of reasons- many even legitimate ones- for having a MySpace or FaceBook page. But when you boil it down, it's often absolutely no different than putting a flashy paintjob on your car, wearing fancy or expensive clothes (or jewellry, or watches, or shoes, etc.) or having a fancy fountain or birdbath or rose garden in your front lawn.

"Hey Everybody, Look At Me!"

Doc.

[Lew Hartswick]

Facebook has certainly helped me in the "genealogy" aspect of doing
a complete family tree. I found a bunch of distant relatives of my
generation and the following ones. I sort of got sucked into this bit
but after starting it think it may be of use to a lot of people in the
future.
I have never been afraid to use my name or e-mail addr. on any of
the bulliten boards (like this one) or in contact with anyone.
...lew...

[motorcyclemac]

-It's the "Hey Everybody, Look At Me!" aspect.

"Hey Everybody, Look At Me!"

Doc.

Wow.... +1

I have to agree. I often think about how goofey the human life has become. The world is adicted to computers. Folks use computers for different reasons. I use it as a portal to get my needed information.

I don't spend hours locked in...er logged in. My daughter will sit down in front of a computer and become attacked by tunnel vision. At times you actually have to go yank her chain to get her attention. She runs her computer with ear buds in .... I refer to it as "being in her space bubble".

I know folks that wake up and get online...eat while texting and surfing on the cell phone...drive with the laptop on in the car... Work using a computer...get home and log on...stay up till midnight surfing...and then complain that they have relationship problems. Well. DUH!

I have never ever had a notion to have a facebook page...myspace page...or any such crap. I wouldn't like it if some stranger came to my house and walked around looking thru my picture albums...or reading my note books. Why would I encourage it.

It definately is a Government data mining project gone wildly out of hand. People are WAY to accepting of new things.

Here is a new site...we don't know who runs it....but that is ok....we know it must be some guy who just wants to give a wonderful site to the world to use... We should be able to trust him...right...so what the heck..lets upload all our personal info....so we can say we have a face book page. Why?

It is interesting how many things we don't really need. Blackberries, PDAs, GPS iPODS, MP3 players...we are victims of the media selling products from the chinese gadget monsters. We willingly spend money to adopt some device that will ultimately RUN our lives. Ahem...not this guy. I had a company blackberry for about a year. Never again. I don't need to have people sending me emails and 2 way alerting me while taking a crap. No more...

Cheers
Mac.

[mochinist]

I made the mistake of opening one because one of our friends uses it to post all their kids pictures on there and the wife couldn't look at them without an account. Now I get friend request from people I didn't really care for in HS and college all the time, they probably think I'm a d1ck when I deny them, but whatever. Not really worried about the privacy deal, since all it has is my real name and a picture of me. There are much better sites to stalk and find out all you ever wanted to know about someone, some free and some you have to pay a small amount for, regardless you don't need to enter your info into them, they already have it on you.

Personally I love the "hey look at me" attitude of females in the 18 to 30 range, that also happen to have a digital camera and a mirror

[ARFF79]

Got a MySpace page to stay connected with Daughter in Boston and Brother in Indiana for what isn't handled by phone or email. Found it was a great way to check out new music and bands, as anyone with a computer and the nowhow can post their stuff. Some good some bad most barely passable for my ears (problem for a former music major). Facebook is another story in its self. Seems most of the Church is on it along with my Alumni groups thus if you do not check in at least once a day you may miss a message that should have been sent by email, but no longer is. SHMBO does not do much with the computer outside of geneology, so it passes to me to keep her up on messages. She hates email, would rather get a phone call and hopes that Facebook goes away as most of what gets posted is in her words "So Junior High". Me I spend too much time on news sites and the 2 prominant metal boards. Dont have a picture phone, blackberry nor see the need to twitter. I mean who really needs to know what I am doing every other minute besides my Boss and SHMBO. I know Big Brother is watching 24/7 so I don't count him.