Facebook’s stock is on the slide right now. Not only is it down with the hedge fund managers due to its stuttering stock performance since it floated but pundits have begun to predict the giant social network’s demise. (A rather hysteric headline this week on Mashable Social Media goes as far to boldly predict a timeline for this death “Facebook will disappear by 2020”.)
All predictions of gloom carry a palpable glee. Or maybe I am just imagining that because I am one of those people who love to hate Facebook.
When you think about it, there is lots of stuff about FB to make you feel plain queasy, e.g., the constant stream of people having more fun than you, having better things to say than you, finding out that you can be overly interested in the lives of people you barely know (you laugh at the small minded “twitching-net- curtain” syndrome of suburbia only to find yourself doing the same thing online). And then there are the over-sharers: more misjudged online than they can ever be in person.
But privacy is the big one surely. This is an ongoing high profile discussion and one that isn’t likely to go away. Despite Facebook amending some features last year so that users could have more control over how their interactions on FB are documented via tagging and geo-targeting, people continue to feel put off by the feeling that their information isn’t as secure as they would like it to be. A recent survey on WARC showed that 67% of Germans felt that the personal data on social networking sites such as FB and Twitter was “alarmingly high” and that 78% of these “highly valued” safeguarding these details. Maybe this isn’t a surprising reaction from a country that has imprinted on its recent cultural memory such huge violations of privacy. It knows firsthand the destruction caused by the collection of the often mundane minutiae of millions of lives by the secret police. Imagine how easy life would have been for the STASI if Facebook had existed then? I am sure J Edgar Hoover is rolling somewhere in a grave as he surely would have been a fan too. Now if you think I am now sounding like a geriatric and that time was “then” and this is” now” and the Zeitgeist now is all about sharing, being open, freely offering up everything about ourselves and if we are to believe Mr. Zuckerberg “the age of privacy is over”. But this belies how information can be used, misconstrued and how we feel about being exposed or caught out of context. Is it just me or is the thought of future employers checking out your FB profile online one that provokes horror in all? And yes this is something that employers do and not just in America.
Also, what about things you may have said that you didn’t really think about or mean? It is hard to take back when your life is so easily accessible. FB’s timeline is the perfect browsing tool. I can now as easily see what you were doing/thinking/saying 4 years ago as I can see what you are doing today. Perfect fodder for stalkers or those obsessed exes. If, like me, you take comfort in the fact that you only allow friends to access your world, think for a second about how may times you have been able to access information with someone you are not connected with e.g., through a friend of a friend.
FB timeline is what I think of as a “temporal tattoo” and is potentially dangerous because you are tied publicly to written information and views that you may feel are OK now but perhaps with the passage of time, they'll feel less so. Most of all, I think that people need to be fully aware of their behaviour online and the realm that written views places them in. This may seem obvious but for lots of people it is not. Take the case of the four schoolboys recently expelled for setting up a FB page which speculated on the lives of some of their teachers in a highly inappropriate manner. This is not new behaviour for pupils who out of boredom, silliness or immaturity have long spent indecent stints speculating on the lives of their teachers. What is new is doing this so publicly which forced the issue to be dealt with so resolutely. You have to wonder if this same information had been caught in a note passed between class mates would the reprimand have been as harsh?
FB plays such a role in many people’s lives that a brand this big owes its customers some responsibility. I am of the firm belief that Facebook should be guiding people in a helpful way about privacy and not trying to hoodwink them. Facebook should be helping them feel more and not less secure. This is in their interests as people who spend large amounts of time online are most concerned and are more likely to engage more if they feel more secure online.
On a last note, remember it is always good not to believe the hype. For all of Mark Zuckerberg’s assertions about the changing nature of privacy, encouraging us to let it all hang out, I found it amusing to observe Facebook censoriously removing pictures of mothers breastfeeding and all the ensuing protests (these were Mums connecting and sharing stuff relevant to their lives). It would appear that even Mr Zuckerberg believes some things should be kept private after all!