The end of facebook (for me), a convienent compendium

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Just thought I would share why I killed facebook…. it is a bizarre marketing tool that really has no social functionality. After the curiousness of being contact by friends from 20 years ago wears off, you find there is really nothing to do but sit there and have people bite you, draw on your wall, or do other very non engaging methods of communication. Maybe I never figured it out… but it never seemed like I could *do* anything. Then came marketing blitzes. If I bought a gift on Amazon, it would tell all my friends. Anytime I wrote a review on Yelp, it would tell all my facebook friends. It was odd, and didn’t sit right. Then I started understanding the marketing aspect… they tracked what I bought in amazon, then posted to my facebook friends and if they bought it too then they could market independently to us.

It isn’t bad or some covert conspiracy, but it creeped me out a bit.. then I started reading. These are culled from months of conversation… I don’t sit and idly waste time compiling info on facebook. But if I am nervous about a site, it should tell you something:. That I am a freaky internet warrior, and rarely have reservations about anything.

Anyhoo… it is pretty cool in some respects. But for the way I ended up using it, it started to rub me wrong. Any photos, writing… ANYTHING you post, they own. Not even myspace does that. Facebook has sold pics to CNN from people’s profiles without expressively asking for rights, due to the fact they own anything you post. That became an issue during the Virginia tech shootings…. people’s profiles ended up on CNN.

There are some other funny stories of people finding pics of someone in a tutu costume when they were “cough cough” sick from work….

anyhoo… enjoy… take 10 or 15 seconds for each one and see what grasps you if any. Your concerns might not be like my concerns, but assuredly the creative control issues I note about art is important regarding any pic you put up of you and yours. That being said, I don’t think this is some out of control big brother thing, nor some nefarious plot. It is just out of control business. Frankly, it is an amazing resource for comminication.

Within months of signing up, I found 30 or 40 deep, dear old friends that I was pleased to get in touch with again. In the end, the only way I could touch them is show them what products I bought, what music I listen to, or if I wanted to bite them and make them a zombie.