I spend a lot of time on facebook and twitter. It’s gotten to the point that I don’t bother here, because I can throw a quick update out on those sites with little to no effort, and I always feel that posts here should be a bit more substantial. The problem is that there’s nothing that I feel was really “post worthy” because much of what I do during the day is pretty much the same throughout the week.
The whole blow up that is currently flying around the web about facebook’s privacy issues has got me thinking about how I feel about my own information being out there. The fact that I have a blog and my real name is attached to it isn’t an issue. I also don’t mind the fact that friends of friends can see what movies I like and music I listen to, that’s part of the fun in finding new things that might interest me. What does bug me is that those same likes are now following me around and are being created and cataloged while I’m not actively adding them to a list, simply because I choose to keep myself logged into these networks rather than having to log in each time I visit them.
The morning drive, dropping off the husband and the kid, has become the debate and discussion hour as we head out each morning. I think I’ve finally figured out what bugs me about the whole thing. It’s one thing to tell my friends that I like something, be it a new band or a brand of soap. That’s just me giving my opinion to people that I know and they know me. This is not the same as tapping into what I browse on a music site and relaying that information to marketing people. If those people were to send me a survey and ask for my opinion directly, would I give it to them? Most likely I would, especially if it was a site that I frequent. If you want to know what I think, ask me. That’s the crux of it all really. Ask Me.
There are several sites out there right now that are providing detailed diagrams and flow charts of how to navigate through the mire that has become your facebook privacy filters. They have made things so convoluted that people feel the need to help each other make sense of it because in the long run, most of us won’t bother to go through the hassle, and our information will be dished out as statistics to the highest payer.
We as a culture brag about our prowess on the web and how cool we are by keeping up on the trends, but the fact is that the majority of people out there really don’t get it. Everything you type, every picture you post, every “private” message you send can be tracked back to you. There is a simple logic that we keep coming back to in the car; don’t put anything out there that you don’t want public, even if you think you’re speaking privately there is a chance that it can be seen by others.
This all brings be back around to this blog. I started blogging many years ago back when it was new and we found new blogs by looking at the links on other blogs and gradually building a reading list of those who interested us. There was also the joys of Wanderlust, a blog ring of sorts that would send you to a random site in the network whenever you clicked it. (that definitely shows how long I’ve been at this lark) Blogs were a place for people to make their own space and share stories, photos, music, all those things that are now conveniently in a single site where we all have access to everything. The problem is that the powers that be live in corporate America where each profile is converted into a dollar value. We are not individuals, we are statistics, trends, a captive audience that can be shaped and molded so that we rush out and spend our hard earned dollars on the right products, because some guy in a suit somewhere figured out that 86% of us respond well to links that are purple.
With my blog I have control over my own information. I can still share it with friends, but it’s harder for those number crunchers to get to it. If I post a photo here, it’s mine, I own it, I don’t waive away my rights for someone else to use them in advertising for their own purposes because I wanted to share it with my friends. Likewise, all my words here are my own. It’s not like I’m hiding who I am anymore. I did for a time, because I’ve had issues in the past with people taking an unhealthy interest in what I had to say, but I’ve moved on and really can’t be arsed if someone else has a stick up their ass about things.
Maybe in the long run, I’m realizing that I have more to say than what I can post in 144 characters, and maybe I feel that what I’m thinking is more than just a status update with a link. I don’t need help with a farm. I don’t need someone to watch my zoo. What I want is a dialog with people about what is going on in the world. So much is going on around us and our biggest concern is getting home in time to check a game. The machine is moving us all in a direction where we lose track of what is truly important by keeping us occupied with trivial matters.
Take back the web, it was ours in the beginning, individuals who reached out and asked if anyone was reading. It should be about sharing and opening opportunities for all of us, but let us do it on our own terms. Get over it being a giant marketing experiment. Tell them to fuck off.
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