RSS Feed
This is an article by a new contributor – Dan Nielsen
Over the past 6 months the tide has well and truly turned against Facebook. At least that’s what the mainstream media would have you believe. While reports fly around of swathes of users fleeing the service, my personal experience indicates nothing of the sort. I’m not using it any less and my friends aren’t using it any less – in fact, I have a number of friends who have joined throughout the ongoing media barrage against the service.
Numerous reports have suggested that Facebook is culpable for various social evils. Incessant attacks against it include claims that it is being exploited by stalkers, used as a trawling ground for paedophiles and as a platform for bullying – especially among school-aged children. This unrelenting focus on fear-driven reporting glosses over the potential positive benefits of the service, including regaining contact with long-lost friends and relatives, increased interactions amongst like-minded people and the sharing of photos amongst friends and family who are spread around the globe.
If you believe the media, nobody is ever bullied in real life, paedophiles only find victims on Facebook and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is the devil incarnate!
Newsflash! Facebook mirrors society.
Those in the media could try offering some useful advice on how to best use Facebook instead of scaremongering. They could also start explaining to people that the real danger of Facebook lies in the fact that some people treat it as a game and not as an extension of society. Facebook is real and to treat it otherwise is to flirt with danger. If you are mindful of its shortcomings and take the necessary steps to protect your information, Facebook can be an extremely useful tool for communication.
Here’s a list of useful tips for looking after your profile:
- If you don’t want someone to keep appearing as a “Friend Suggestion” add them, then delete them, they will not appear again.
- Set all your privacy settings to the highest possible.
- Do not put your mobile phone number or email address onto your profile as “visible”
- Input a different year for your birth-date, it will help stop people stealing your identity, but your birthday will still appear at the right time.
- Parents, go through your friends list with your children frequently, asking them where they know each person from, if they don’t know them in the real world, delete them.
- If you wouldn’t stick a photo onto your front door then don’t put it on Facebook without appropriate security settings.
- Watch any comments you make on other peoples profiles and as status updates, a jibe over Facebook can be more cutting then one in real life and can be easily misunderstood. It is also viewed by everyone who is on their friend list and your friend list.
Facebook, like society, isn’t perfect. In this time-poor era, it’s a great way to stay in touch. Surely it doesn’t deserve all the bad press that it continually receives in the media.
Editor’s Note: One wonders how much of the anti-Facebook brigade is driven by Murdoch’s desire to damage the brand. After all, Myspace was purchased by News Corp for $580million USD in July 2005 and was the dominant social networking service at the time. Old Rupe probably wasn’t so happy to see his investment diminish in value. That’s not to say that Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook’s founder) is faultless; there is much to question about Facebook’s respect of their users’ privacy, however Myspace is deserving of similar scrutiny. The benefits of Facebook to this site are clear – we’ve been able to organically grow readership through thanks to readers sharing articles and joining our Facebook group.
Over to you, any tips for Facebook security? Any imaginative uses for Facebook? Any suggestions as to why it’s on the receiving end of so much negative media attention?
We rely on social networking for our readership, so please share this article on Facebook or Twitter by using the buttons below.
My greatest criticism of facebook is that, just as in real life, most facebookers talk complete shit. It’s actually quite rare to find links to something like this prestigious journal!
Likewise there will be the astounding, and regular, revelation that, shock, horror, if you put your mobile number on your profile, then, someone you don’t know may ring you.
Big M. The incidence of trivial discussion and equally trivial connections to other pages must surely reflect the circle of friends you have acquired in Facebook? In any event, the recent issue with FB has not only traversed issues for personal management of friendships and content but matters of deception, including false identity and (more importantly for this story) data harvesting by FB. The company (and any other in the same game) must make it completely transparent that it will use everything you choose to publish and share between friends to inform commercial arrangements to target and market to you and your friends. Your thoughts on politics and religion (on anything really) are not simply conversations between friends but information with commercial value for FB and their clients, some of whom may not want to sell you anything but can make good use of your opinions, attitudes and dispositions.
“Your thoughts on politics and religion (on anything really) are not simply conversations between friends but information with commercial value for FB and their clients, some of whom may not want to sell you anything but can make good use of your opinions, attitudes and dispositions.”
While I agree with the first part of this statement – that it’s information with “commercial value”, I do wonder how you extrapolate that the information will be used for anything other than marketing? Facebook allows for very specific advertising (which I’ve been utilising for this site and for our mining tax campaign). They don’t appear to use the data for anything more insidious. I’m not saying it’s not possible in the future, but I wonder what basis you have for your assertion?
“While reports fly around of swathes of users fleeing the service, my personal experience indicates nothing of the sort. I’m not using it any less and my friends aren’t using it any less – in fact, I have a number of friends who have joined throughout the ongoing media barrage against the service.”
Is this supposed to be a meaningful statement? Your personal experience somehow negates a phenomenon large enough to be reported in media?
My experience agrees with the media on this issue. Friends are leaving in droves for one reason or another. There is also a new Facebook alternative coming called Diaspora, which should be promoted, as it is like Facebook but without the insidious data collation.
But seriously man, the first paragraph of your article shouldn’t be “The media says X but I have experienced Y”. That’s just pathetic.
I would counter that the media has offered no reliable metric by which to judge their statements, so the author’s anecdotal evidence is equally valid. I’ll add that my experience is similar, no-one I know has left and I’ve gained a few.
Diaspora is a good move, but it’s a different idea. It’s going to be a self-hosted style Facebook, with a far less global reach as far as I understand it.
“I would counter that the media has offered no reliable metric by which to judge their statements, so the author’s anecdotal evidence is equally valid.”
Yes, well that is not a true statement.
Enlighten me then
Enlighten you about what? Your statement is not internally consistent. It is a non sequitur. It does not follow.
The media has not offered a metric
THEREFORE
Anecdotal evidence is valid.
This is not true. It’s the same as saying
I am wearing pants
THEREFORE
It is raining in China.
:blink: I’m afraid you’re the one lacking internal consistency. You said “Your personal experience somehow negates a phenomenon large enough to be reported in media?”. To which I pointed out that the media itself has provided no reliable basis for their supposedly factual reporting on the mater. This being the case, challenging the validity with our own anecdotal evidence is EQUALLY valid.
We’re comparing apples with apples here.
Your example of :
I am wearing pants
THEREFORE
It is raining in China.
Does not have any relevance in my opinion.
You’re begging the question. I do not accept that “the media itself has provided no reliable basis” for their claims. Even if I did, challenging (an assumed) wealth of information with a skerrick is a poor tactic.
I’m not going to argue this any more because it is pointless. This article is shoddily written, there is almost no research here at all. Is the author even aware of the major shareholders of Facebook and what they have stated they wish to do with information? Does the author mention any of the many statements that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made which clearly demonstrate his total lack of regard for individual privacy?
No. This is a little bit of pap about a dude who doesn’t know why the media is talking about something, because he sure hasn’t seen the think they’re talking about, so hey, it must not exist, right?
“Facebook, like society, isn’t perfect. In this time-poor era, it’s a great way to stay in touch. Surely it doesn’t deserve all the bad press that it continually receives in the media.”
Surely? Surely? Based on the information in this article, I don’t feel sure of anything! Why? BECAUSE THERE ISN’T ANY. Hints on how to overcome minor complaints about facebook which have no bearing on privacy issues or, you know, any of the reasons Facebook is actually in the media.
What is this site anyway? Under the article it says they are calling for contributors from any political viewpoint. Is this supposed to be a political article? It reads like it’s written by a teenager.
Facebook deserves some scrutiny and criticism for encouraging so much personal information to be shared but in the end, it’s not Facebook’s fault if people are careless with their details.
As with everything in society these days people generally take the low road and pull things down and are rarely prepared to create something themselves. Facebook was created, became popular and now plenty of people would love to tear it down. Hey Zeus obviously has a fair degree of negativity floating around.