The Facebook Privacy Thread

[Gn2Dlnd]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

However, while there is no question that it contains an aspect of frivolity, it has grown rather quickly into a useful and ubiquitous tool for communication, a form of communication for which there is no easy substitute.

Without it sounding like baiting, what about FaceBook is not easy to substitute? Am I that old? I feel like I'm asking why the telegraph is so much better than smoke signals. What I suspect I'm asking is why a touchscreen phone is better than one with a keypad.

[Ghoulish Delight]

It's not that any one particular aspect of Facebook is irreplaceable. Status updates are essentially twitter, photo posting can be accomplished with flickr or MMS or other photo sharing options, links can be emailed, etc. etc. But Facebook has gotten its users accustomed to having it all together in a single interface, and in a way that allows you to reach many people all at once with minimal effort. Once you are accustomed to it, I can't think of any other way I could communicate the things I do on Facebook, to the variety of people I'm able to, anywhere near as conveniently.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Originally Posted by Gn2Dlnd

Without it sounding like baiting, what about FaceBook is not easy to substitute? Am I that old? I feel like I'm asking why the telegraph is so much better than smoke signals. What I suspect I'm asking is why a touchscreen phone is better than one with a keypad.

The power of Facebook is that nearly everyone is there already.

In the past, I'd post a photo on a site like Photobucket, and then I'd email some friends and post it here for others. If you know people on different sites you need to visit all your haunts to get your stuff out to everyone.

When almost everyone is in one place, it makes posting things infinitely easier. My posted photo on Facebook is seen by parents, cousins, in-laws, old high school buddies, college friends, many of you guys, and other myriad friends. I didn't even add circles like coworkers and I'm sure it's only a matter of time before my new mom group friends get on there too.

Another example - I've gotten over 30 Happy Birthday posts on my wall so far today, from all the various groups I listed above. It's only 2pm and I'm sure I'll get plenty more. It's pretty neat.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

Another example - I've gotten over 30 Happy Birthday posts on my wall so far today, from all the various groups I listed above. It's only 2pm and I'm sure I'll get plenty more. It's pretty neat.

Speak for yourself Missy! It is a near fatal flaw that Facebook has generated a new stream of birthday comments that I have no hope of shutting down short of deleting my account.