• Search for:

• Categories

  • Education
  • General
  • iPhone
  • Jwill
  • Link
  • Opinion
  • Politics
  • Public Transportation
  • Social Networking
  • Sports
  • Tech

• Recent Posts

  • Treating Public Figures Like They’re Inhuman
  • Patients’ Own Stem Cells Work Wonders
  • Assessing Teacher Performance
  • More on the Monthly Gun Limit
  • On Enacting a Monthly Limit on Gun Purchases

• Archives

  Select Month June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006

• Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries RSS
  • Comments RSS
  • WordPress.org

Source: Wired.com
Read Article

Soon everybody — including your uncle Louie and that guy you hated from your last job — had a profile.

And Facebook realized it owned the network.

Then Facebook decided to turn “your” profile page into your identity online — figuring, rightly, that there’s money and power in being the place where people define themselves. But to do that, the folks at Facebook had to make sure that the information you give it was public.

So in December, with the help of newly hired Beltway privacy experts, it reneged on its privacy promises and made much of your profile information public by default. That includes the city that you live in, your name, your photo, the names of your friends and the causes you’ve signed onto.

An article from Wired about how Facebook’s privacy is going downhill. I’ve always wanted to leave Facebook but I feel like I’ll disconnect too much if I do. Maybe it’s still worth it, though?

Source: Wired.com
Read Article

Using a simple scraping tool, a marketer could then turn a list of e-mail addresses into a rich, full-fledged set of markeying profiles, with names, pictures, ages, locations, interests, photos, wall posts, affiliations and names of your friends, depending on how users have their profiles set. Run a few algorithms on that data and you can start to make inferences about race, income, sexual orientation and interests.

While that information isn’t available for all users, Facebook changed its privacy settings in early December so that certain information can’t be made private, including one’s name, current city, profile picture, gender, networks and friend list (the latter can be somewhat hidden from public view).

Anyone with your e-mail address can harvest that information, the company admits.

This doesn’t sound good. I’m still on Facebook and I really do need to cut it from my list of social networks. Problem is, I do still use it for promoting events for my residents and keeping in touch with a few of them. But, I digress. Definitely give this report a read.

A silly advertisement I found on Facebook:

Source: BU Today
Read Article

This article, written by BU College of Communications sophomore Brendan Gauthier, is a good insight into reasons why one would want to leave Facebook. I myself have been a victim of constantly clicking on the Facebook link on my bookmark toolbar and looking through photos and seeing what everyone else is doing. One day, it donned on me. I asked myself, “Why am I doing this? How much time am I wasting on Facebook?” I decided to do something about it and make a bold move. I removed Facebook not only from my bookmarks toolbar, but also from my bookmarks menu in general. The only ways I can get to Facebook now are by typing in the url (unfortunately it’s still a bookmark so merely typing “f” may do it) or by going to my bookmarks panel. Even though it still is in relatively easy access, it is nowhere near as convenient to go to it. Thus, I surf Facebook much less than I used to now.

I relate to some things that Gauthier says. For example, a chord immediately struck with me when he asked “why was I ‘friends’ with more than 300 people?“ and when he said ”I didn’t even know this person, yet I could tell you what she did last weekend.“ Really, Facebook ”friends“ are not friends in any version of the word. Sure, a few of them are; you know, your *real* friends. But everyone else is just socially connected to you just because you work for the same organization or go to the same school. And let’s face it: on a collegiate level, going to the same school don’t mean squat. I’ve always wondered why I’m friends with hundreds of people I don’t talk to. I’d love to cut them all from my list sometimes but then they get so insulted or offended. Why? It’s not like we talk anyway. I want to straight up deactivate my account, but I’m a little scared of the repercussions it may cause. I’d have one less way to keep in touch with people. But then again, aren’t e-mail, IM, and text messaging enough forms of contact? Why do I need another one? When I write on my blog, why can’t people just read it from here and not read it on Facebook if I post it there? I used to change my status to point out that I had a new blog post (whether it be here or on my poem blog), but I eventually stopped. The real, true readers will follow my blog, if they care enough.

Gauthier mentions that his withdrawal from Facebook has promoted to his becoming a New York Times junkie. I applaud that. I wonder if the lack of Facebook in my life now has allowed me to post more on both of my blogs (let’s face it: during the semesters I usually churn out almost nothing). I’m almost at the point of completely removing Facebook from my life. I would just need to press the deactivate button. It’s not helping my life in many ways socially, and people get to see things I don’t necessarily want them to see. So what’s the point?

Make sure you check out Gauthier’s take — it’s very well written and it’ll make you think.

About a week or so ago, Facebook’s “Online Now” page had a little yellow tag that said the page would be moving to the chat area. With this change, users can now see who’s online from any page while on the site. There’s one catch, though: you have to be logged into chat. I have seen many a post of discontent about the chat feature of Facebook, as well as discontent about the “Online Now” section moving to the chat area. The main issue with this incorporation is that it forces you to activate Facebook Chat. I don’t know if they did this to get us to turn it on or not, but it’s still a bit iffy. I personally don’t mind turning it on, but there are quite a few people that will mind. The change is good overall, but what it needs is to be independent of the chat feature. If you’re offline from chat, you should still be able to see who’s online. Also, I can’t get to the Facebook pages of people who are online by clicking on their name anymore; it opens a chat window instead. I like that it’s on every page now, though.

I overall appreciate the change but it can be a bit better.

Next Page →