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Facebook Farce

I’ve noticed recently that the majority of marketing magazines and websites talk constantly about Facebook and the marketing potential waiting to be unleashed on the poor unsuspecting social networkers. Note the recent debate on Brand Republic about Vodaphone and Direct Line withdrawing their advertising from the site because of the proximity to pro BNP content.

Knowing how much I love Facebook one of my colleagues the other week passed me a magazine with an article about how to use Facebook as a business networking tool as well as a social one. This would appear to make sense as I could mix business with pleasure and spend valuable work time organising my social life, I mean getting amazing prospects and contacts.

The article spoke of big businessmen being able to express their true selves and ordinary people cuddling up to corporations. They had a list of top tips and this is where my Facebook business dream ended –
1. Don’t post silly pictures of yourself drunk or otherwise.
How can you not have silly pictures of yourself? Because people don’t want to deal with people who enjoy themselves outside of work?

Everyday I read more and more about the violation of Facebook – companies checking on potential future employees, schools punishing pupils for posting views on their teachers. Surely this is a question of our right to be ourselves on what was once the haven of social networking, a breath of fresh air after the horror of MySpace.

The problem is if I boycott Facebook how will I know what my friends are doing? Where the party is this weekend? How would I ever see the photos of myself at fun social gatherings? So for now I’ll have to continue using it, while feeling a bit angry and slightly annoyed.

Posted by Tasha on Thursday 9th of August 2007 at 4:29pm

Tags: Online stuff

Comments

I fear Facebook on a truly Orwellian level and responded as follows to a colleague's request to 'get on board'...

"Sinking deeper into my Philip K Dick future paranoid psychosis I'm conviced that Facebook is the devil's work and will be eventually used to track every movement we make, vet each relationship we forge and use the nice high resolution images we happily upload to automatically to cross reference against CCTV footage to tie up unsolved crimes.

As such, I respectfully decline the kind offer to become your 'friend'."

Did I overreact?

Posted by Simon B5 on Thursday 9th of August 2007 at 5:14pm

I fear the future as well Simon, the applications are like a trojan horse.

Posted by Tasha on Thursday 9th of August 2007 at 5:31pm

When you log on, you get bombarded with --- do you want to eat this? Do you want to be a pirate? Someone bought you a beer and a cat, someone just gnawed on your leg and now you are a zombie....

I think your right Tasha, extending it with useless apps was a bad idea.

Posted by James B5 on Thursday 9th of August 2007 at 6:15pm

I'm with Simon on this one... the last thing I want to be doing is telling big brother, nanny state or even the lovely aunty what I like to do in my free time. It's not that I get up to anything desperately exciting or controversial, but I want my private life to remain just that.
I don't do internet banking or bill paying either - which is mildly inconvenient, but means I don't need to worry quite as much about falling prey to the clever people out there intent on defrauding me from my hard earned.
Maybe I'm just a ludite.

Posted by name and address withheld for reasons of paranoia on Friday 10th of August 2007 at 9:22am

I have no fear of what Facebook could become or how it could be abused, but I still have no interest in publishing any information on it. I have many friends who do, but they have the eagerness and determination to maintain and update their Facebook profile.

I have no such desire and know that it would just become another (virtual) gadget that gathers dust on the shelf. To give a Facebook profile the justice it deserves would take too much time . . .

I have other projects that I would like to persue, books to read, places and people to meet (on and offline). Maybe it is my age but Life is limited, and for me, I need to be more selective . . .

Saying that . . . I am commenting on a blog, which some may see as a waste of time too . . .

Go figure . . .

Posted by Mr Troll on Friday 10th of August 2007 at 12:37pm

Mr Troll, I see your point and it is why it took me a long time to succumb. The problem I have is that it has become the focal point of my social life. Maybe there is a difference in generations happening here.

Or maybe my friends are all computer geeks ...

Posted by Tasha on Friday 10th of August 2007 at 1:48pm

i want to be a pirate.

facebook and myspace both have adverts, it's all mass media projected into homes and offices in the pretence that you're inviting it in. but hey, if all your friends use it to the exclusion of the 'real' world, maybe that tells us more about the world we inhabit: work hard (or at least long hours), set up communications and then run for the pub/park/whatever as soon as the whistle blows for full time.

texting was said to be the end of chatting, but in reality it meant people communicated more, as they could feel like they weren't bothering people, they could be brief instead of having ages on the phone, and more texts are sent asking people to meet up then phonecalls made.

i personally refuse to see facebook as anything but a fun distraction, the same as myspace or any other website i can visit at lunchtime.

Posted by pip on Friday 10th of August 2007 at 2:12pm

I really think we need to give ourselves more credit for some intelligence and selective interaction. Do I buy Daz because I see the advert? No. Filtering is a great evolution for mankind. The brain is a great adaptor.

The real issue is one of time and how to spend it. Every day we are felt to feel incompetent or stupid for not actively being a member of the latest myfacemsnonlineblogospherericalextradimension. Even worse is now we want to link the social with the business.....

Talking is actually a good thing you know...

Posted by Tony on Monday 20th of August 2007 at 3:52pm

I agree with you Tony when you say that talking is a good thing, but social networking sites have made it easier to keep in contact with more people. I have managed to get in touch with old school friends that I haven't spoken to since I left school.

Posted by Tasha on Tuesday 21st of August 2007 at 2:18pm

This: http://www.brandrepublic.com/BrandRepublicNews/News/736206/Facebook-hands-profiles-search-engines/ is why I don't do Facebook, MySpace or anything else.

Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get me.

Posted by Siân on Thursday 6th of September 2007 at 9:39am

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