I was right. Facebook does steal your soul.
Writing by Tim on Tuesday, 12 of February , 2008 at 1:24 am
I was sent this NY Times article with my stringent anti-social networking site psychosis in mind. Admittedly, it is a little weird being one of the few human beings, particularly when living on a college campus, who does not have any kind of online profile. I’ve had several complaints lodged against me that I am difficult to get in contact with because I lack said profile. As if dialing a number or sending a text message is hard.
But I digress: that really doesn’t have anything to do with what I’m sitting down to write about.
What I mean when I say Facebook steals your soul is that they retain information about you after you delete your page, indefinately. One Nipon Das (where the hell do these people, and their names, come from?) campaigned for two months to get his info taken off the site. Even after threatening legal action and being told his info was removed, he was still able to be contacted through Facebook. Is it wrong to be worried by this? With people killing themselves over MySpace and alleged talk of employers and cops looking through online data with the intent of passing judgement on people, do you really want that info out there?
For instance, do you really want all of those photos of you drunk off your ass at some dorm room party, or maybe that video you don’t know exists of you clumsily grabbing your crotch, cat-calling to your roommates hot girlfriend, complete with a little nametag that identifies you instantly to any random schmuck who cares to look, out there on the net forever?
The larger issue here is, of course, who owns the rights to your personal information. Personal info on the net is going the way of radio stations under Bill Clinton, television under the cable tv regime, and more recently XM radio. We the people no longer own the corporate-ized public radio waves, and because big business can hide behind, “Free speech is for everyone who can pay for it,” we silently let our rights get flushed down the toilet. The same is happening here when we sign our name over to indefinate display before the entire world.And as Mr. Das knows, even lawyers can’t help.
Category: Blog
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Comment by Victoria
Made Tuesday, 12 of February , 2008 at 10:30 am
Your description of the hypothetical video makes me wish I didn’t live in a single. You think people would notice if I staged it?
Comment by sharpster
Made Tuesday, 12 of February , 2008 at 2:54 pm
I’m looking forward to having to pull out my “national ID card” to buy a bagel.
