Doctorow: How Your Creepy Ex-Co-Workers Will Kill Facebook
informationweek.com
informationweek.com
You'd think that Facebook would be the perfect tool for handling all this. It's not. For every long-lost chum who reaches out to me on Facebook, there's a guy who beat me up on a weekly basis through the whole seventh grade but now wants to be my buddy; or the crazy person who was fun in college but is now kind of sad; or the creepy ex-co-worker who I'd cross the street to avoid but who now wants to know, "Am I your friend?" yes or no, this instant, please.
Facebook is the new AOL... hadn't thought of it that way, but it does seem like an appropriate analogy.
Meanwhile, the site's features progressed along, making the site increasingly sticky (it really wasn't back in the day). The big hitters were and still are Photos and Events, which both happen a lot better if all of your friends are already signed up for the site.
All of this stuff happened well before there was a lot of hype from the Valley started kicking in. Facebook's growth since opening up to high school (and later, the world) is less interesting though, since they've basically been running on network effects, inherent virality and quality product. They didn't have any of those when the site first started.
It was also a great way to find your friend's hot friends and set up a meeting somehow.
The fact you had to give them your college email address and a password was no barrier. Heck, not having to choose a user name or design your profile yourself made it easier to sign up.
(I can answer this since I was in college at the time it got started.)
really, every decision of the masses can be attributed to laziness?
I can only explain everything after that to me being a blustery gasbag that likes to elaborate.
Absolutely the best analogy.
Integrating my Amazon purchases onto my feed? Kind of neat, but I already do that with anything I want to share via a bookshare application...
It seems that the design ought to have however many different levels of friends you want, with the inner circles seeing everything on your page that the outer circles can see, plus some more, without necessarily knowing the name of the circle they're in. That way you could have Public (not friended at all) < Acquaintances < Business associates < Family < Close friends (or vice versa, or combining the previous two, depending on how you relate to your family) < Secret circle of shame.
Or a directed acyclic graph instead of a single path, I guess, as long as you only allow people access to that feature if they promise they understand how to use it. (Whose social life is that complicated?)
There's a hidden benefit if people use the 'ignore' feature properly: you get a better idea of who your friends are. Someone ignoring a friend request can be very telling.
you can get value out of facebook, just add the friends who are truly in your inner-circle, or those that were and moved away.
you can also prevent yourself from being searched for, so when someone else says i can't find you on facebook, you can say a) oh, i'm not on facebook, or b) oh i have the privacy settings on, i'll send an invite to you
Exodus from FB has already begun.
Seriously, though: I could care less about what shows up on the feeds. Anyone who would criticize or judge me for what I buy isn't among my friends, in real life or on facebook. Worried about your boss (as Doctorow says, you pretty much have to friend this one if they come a-courtin') seeing too much? Just twiddle the privacy settings so he or she only sees the most innocuous of updates.
While there are many valid criticisms of facebook, I have never worried once about the ones you listed.
Just my 2 cents.
OK, that's argumentum ad hominem, so let's look at why he's being a tool this particular here time.
Bullshit argument. If you don't want to hear from the guy who beat you up, don't add him -- or better yet, write back and say "you beat me up, and you're lucky I don't track you down and let the air out of your tires every day for a week."
Social networks are not for pussies. They're for people who are ready to face society and its weirdos.
Perhaps Corey Doctorow isn't just a tool, but also a pussy.
Maybe ordinary people are pussies too.
Is that what Corey is complaining about? I read that he hates being stalked. I think he likes complaining about hating being stalked. Regardless, the fear of social networking because the "wrong" people might find you -- that's what makes Corey a pussy.
What difference does it make if your friends move to new social nets? No one is forcing you to do anything. Politely tell them you're giving up social networking.
In any event: much ado about nothing.