It's everywhere!

Facebook has become ubiquitous! It's in our 'faces' and there's no denying that it is a corporate GIANT. I see the 'like' logo all through-out advertising and the internet on a day-to-day basis, to the point where It becomes such a normality that it is expected. People talk of facebook frequently and habitually. So much so that the phrase "facebook me" has been adopted into our language on a wide scale and seems to serve as a substitute for "email me" or "call me".

Facebook was launched in 2004, with pioneer Mark Zuckerberg leading the way. Estimated to be worth just over 75 billion dollars, facebook hosts over 800 million users worldwide (prediction to hit 1 billion in august) and is the most-used social networking site to ever exist. But I'd prefer to look at facebook with a fish-eye glance.....

 

Is facebook camouflaged as a trap?

 Facebook has the worlds largest database on people and their personal information. In a way, it's kind of like a river. A seemingly never-ending friendship river that sucks anyone in who joins, and thrusts them into the rip current that exposes them to a world of 'friends'. You feel accepted in this friendship river. You can post what your feeling, chat with your 'friends', find old classmates and talk with people you thought you might never have heard from again, etc. You can digitally profile yourself and create your online counterpart.

But once you choose to deactivate, it can be seen (by some) as a fight against the current – a dissent. This aspect of facebook has been a major contributor to the sites success – the fear of missing out and losing contact with your 'friends'. It's a reason that fuels the compulsion to keep using facebook.

Almost everyone's on there, so why not join. It's FREE!

People can be naïve. Are we but sheep moving in flocks?

Arguably, facebook seems to have morphed into a data-mining site for modern capitalist's and corporatist political systems. Advertisers have struck a gold-mine and the C.I.A use it as a 'spying machine' which makes their surveillance and covert information gathering a lot easier. This paves the way for some serious privacy issues.

What? The C.I.A has access to facebook?

Privacy has just deteriorated.......

Claims have been made (most labelled as conspiracy theories) all throughout the internet signifying this. In fact, claims have been made that the C.I.A is facebook.

As stated in the NZ herald: “The first lot of funding for facebook (in 2004) came from former paypal C.E.O venture capitalist Peter Thiel who invested $500,000. The second round of funding ($12.7 million) came from former chairman of the venture capitalist fund Accel Partners, James Breyer (Kept rather quiet, I wonder why?). Breyer also served on the board of In-Q-Tel (a venture capitalist firm established by the C.I.A), who's area of expertise is data-mining.”

There have also been ties to DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and IAO (Information Awareness Office). IAO was set up in 2002 and it's mission is to achieve Total Information Awareness (TIA), to gather as much information as possible about everybody and centralise it in one location for use and examination by US Government. They work under the guise of “the war on terror”. This makes what they do seem permittable, acceptable and necessary.
Essentially, these intelligence agencies have the potency to act as a big brother type system.

For more info on the above click here.

Facebook uses state of the art facial recognition software. They enabled this feature by default without users consent. Rather than having to tediously 'tag' your friends, facebook does it for you. Great! It identifies your face and stores it in an immense identity book. That's roughly 800 million faces in one database that the CIA and US Government have access to, along with all your personal information ie. Hometown, phone number, email, interests, daily schedules, political affiliations etc etc.

Facebook has had many run-in's with the law regarding privacy issues and has been sued numerous times. These privacy issues include child safety (seen as a platform for paedophiles), unexplained email hacking (to convince people's friends to join), releasing information to advertisers and even tracking your computers cookies. The list goes on.

One of facebooks privacy policies states, “You grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, world-wide license to use any IP content that you post or in connection with facebook (IP license).” This is subject to your ever complicated, frequently altered ambiguous privacy settings, that most people seem to ignore.

One of the most controversial privacy concerns was when facebook set up something know as Beacon. It was (shut down in Sep 2009) a system that collected data (for advertising purposes) from external websites, stored it in a database and published it on user's news feeds. Apparently facebook said it allowed users to 'share online activities with their friends'.

Initially facebook didn't give the users the chance to 'opt-in', users were assigned Beacon by default. There had been reports that the Beacon programme collected data (cookies) without users knowledge. Even when users had 'opted out' and were not logged into facebook, Beacon still tracked their online behaviour for means of decisive advertising. When Beacon was first launched, a sum of 44 partnerships joined. These include giant corporations like Coca-cola, Blockbuster, ebay, Sony etc - All clued up in the art of data-mining and manipulative advertising.
The Beacon programme was so desirable by advertisers because it had the ability to collect information about consumers and their behaviours on a large scale. This then had the potential to skyrocket sales.

One of facebook's privacy policies once stated “We may share your information with third parties, including responsible companies with which we have a relationship with.”

Although Beacon was shut down, it is still unclear whether users' infromation is being handled and analysed, for means of profit, behind closed doors.

Narcissism?

With regard to Damian Pearse's idea, from the Guardian: Researchers have traced a distinct connection between the number of friends you have on facebook, to the degree in which you are a socially disruptive narcissist. People who scored high on a narcissistic personality inventory questionnaire had more friends on facebook and updated their news feed frequently.

As stated in dictionary.com: "Narcissism is an inordinate fascination with oneself, showing excessive self-love".

This kind of persona which portrays all-knowing traits, can reduce personal development to a slothful rate.

Self-esteem also becomes another major issue. People can end up comparing themselves and their lives to the lives of others. The desire to impress, fabricate material, frivolously add 'friends', change your profile pic regularly and repeatedly check your facebook page all stack up to form an insecure human being. Facebook gives way to shallow relationships, ostensible behaviour, and 'friends' that better resemble acquaintances. It may start off as a useful platform to connect with your friends but has the ability to transform into a self-orientated mirror-like application that has the capacity to take away from the 'reality' of life.

So.......

Case in point, facebook has downfalls. And whether they affect you consciesly or subliminally, there are side-affects. There's a lot that's kept under the rug in regards to what facebook does with our information, so it's important to be aware.
In the 'information and technology age', more and more people use the extremely powerful tool that is the internet as a tool to 'connect' with people and 'friends'. Personally, I'd prefer to stay away; ex-sponge myself from the realm of privacy deprivation and digital friendships.

Don't get me wrong, there's no doubting that facebook has many positive aspects, but user's need to determine if the negatives outweigh the positives. I'd strongly advise users to thoroughly familiarise themselves with facebook's privacy policies, because it is their personal information and their life. And should users continue their activities on this social networking platform, they should engage moderately to avoid possible toxic effects. Take a step back, weigh your options, and ask yourself, 'Is facebook really worth it?'.

References:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/140182/facebooks_beacon_more_intrusive_than_previously_thought.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Facebook#Cooperation_with_government_search_requests

https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms

http://adventofdeception.com/facebook-ciacover-nwo-agenda/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/14/facebook

Informative and related video links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIGdWsxHJlM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqggW08BWO0 - Hilarious

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3hu3iG8B2g&feature=related