Some Thoughts On Facebook

• November 26, 2011
• 2 notes
• #Facebook
• #social media

Two years ago I left Facebook for two main reasons. The first reason why I left the mother of all social networks is the fact that people were annoying me. I am aware of the fact that you can unfriend people, but back in the day I thought it was too rude to do that. Now, I think differently.

The second reason is privacy. You could have guessed that one, right? Facebook had a fair amount of criticism on their privacy policy these last few years and I personally think this problem is still there. There are some options available to protect your privacy from the outside world, but there is still a fair amount of work to be done — especially on how Facebook is handling personal data.

I never thought about signing up again in those past 2 years. There wasn’t “a need” for doing that, neither there was a purpose to do so. Nevertheless, things have changed. Whilst Facebook already was a huge success amongst individuals, these last few months it started to get pretty popular amongst various services on the internet. Think of Spotify for example. New users are only capable of signing up for the service if you have a Facebook account. I think it’s great you can use your account for various services instead of separate accounts, but you have to give the user an alternative. Spotify isn’t doing that. Plenty of sites on the internet are giving you an option, like The Verge for example. By taking away this choice you are losing more customers then you gain.

The problem goes further. Occasionally, I have a group assignment at university with people I’ve never worked with before. I notice that the communication with team members is much harder when you don’t have Facebook. Last time, they met together without letting me know. Furthermore, sometimes Facebook is needed if you want to sign up for special events like job fairies.

Apparently, there’s also a special Facebook group of my department, Applied Economics. They share information and extra material like summaries of courses which you don’t have access to if you’re not on Facebook. At least, that’s what I have heard.

You see this is getting problematic. I am missing out on things I shouldn’t miss out on. Not only is the internet forcing me to sign up for Facebook but also my colleagues at university.

I have to admit there are some benefits to Facebook. It’s nice to keep up with people you actually like. Since this is my second from last year at university, it might be a good idea to make sure I keep in contact with some of the people I met at school. While there are other methods available for doing that, Facebook is by far the easiest way to do it. People change their address, phone number or even their email address but their Facebook account probably stays. Let’s say it’s more convenient.

That’s how I see Facebook. I see Facebook as a service to keep in touch with people you don’t see every day. It’s a tool for maintaining contact with others. For me, it’s not a service where I tell what music I am listing to, post some videos or quote some famous people and act like I’m smart. There is nothing wrong with that, but I am not that type of guy and I am sure I am not the only one. I don’t have the need to check Facebook every hour or day.

There are also some new filter options available which I didn’t have when I was active on Facebook. I think that’s something I missed during that time and it’s definitely something I would use.

It’s in a way like using Twitter. If you follow people who tweet uninteresting or silly things, the experience is rubbish and you get annoyed easily. The fix is simple. Don’t follow those people. The same goes for Facebook.

I will probably sign up again. Starting over might help me to use Facebook in a way I am comfortable with. While the privacy matters still remain, I can see real value in the service.