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[Leatra]

I'm trying to write about negative aspects of Facebook and I can't really find some good stuff to write about. I currently wrote about those points:

1. People use Facebook to create fictional and better versions of themselves.
2. Facebook devalues the value of word "friendship".
3. We deceive ourselves into thinking that we are keeping in touch with our friends by "like"ing them or commenting on their photos.

Anybody got some ideas? I don't really have much experience with Facebook.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Facebook draws out information from people that they really should not be publically attaching to themselves, and employers are caught up in a social media frenzy where they believe they can determine your aptitude through your Facebook (and dismiss you if you don't have one).

[Scoops Novel]

It's an echo chamber that's slowing people from seeing the point of the internet: to meet people you'd otherwise never know and learn new things.

[Leatra]

I can't believe I forgot to point out the privacy issues. There are lots of things to criticize in Facebook's privacy policy but most of them were changed if I remember right.

[Scoops Novel]

Is it a crumbling monolith? I think that though not tat many have left, most are far less active.

[Leatra]

I guess. People were certainly much more crazy about Facebook a few years ago. Now there are lots of people who quit Facebook and I get to say "I hated Facebook before it was cool, kept hating when it became cool, and I'm still hating it after it became mainstream"

[Ameablable]

I get to say "I hated Facebook before it was cool, kept hating when it became cool, and I'm still hating it after it became mainstream"

HEY! Same here

[rabidgam3r]

How about the shameless money-grubbing from the apps, which are all reskinned versions of the same "Click this to maintain it for coins, come back every hour for virtual money and have a certain amount of things you can do which is replenished every time the heat death of the universe happens" game?

[nenjin]

Facebook as a modern "Mirror mirror on the wall...."

Seriously, every email update I get about Facebook activity is along the lines of "Soandso responded to their own comment."

I know that's probably just a function of FB only notifying of things that people I know do...but to me Facebook is largely about narcissism. People post pictures of themselves, their lives, their daily things and FB glamorizes it, encourages people to put themselves out there so some one will say "Cute baby" or "You look hot" or "Gosh that looks delicious." It's a way for people to get recognition beyond what they'd normally get in their daily lives...or recognition they're NOT getting in their daily lives.

[LordBucket]

I'm trying to write about negative aspects of Facebook and I can't really find some good stuff to write about.

How about the fact that facebook is a CIA data mining project?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Facebook#Data_mining
http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/376026/20120822/facebook-cia-darpa-tanking-ipo.htm#.UEhGw41lTQs
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/cia-is-watching-tweets-facebook/2011/11/04/gIQAvyyllM_blog.html

This is not just internet speculation. From the early days there were people connecting the dots and tracking funding sources, but the CIA has since publicly acknowledged that they scour and archive data specifically from facebook and twitter via the DNI Open Source Center.

https://www.cia.gov/news-information/press-releases-statements/press-release-archive-2005/pr11082005.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Source_Center
http://www.npr.org/2012/01/22/145587161/cia-tracks-public-information-for-the-private-eye


The most sinister aspect, however, is that the data mining is NOT merely of data you voluntarily place on facebook. Facebook uses tracking cookies that actively monitor every OTHER website you view, even when you're not logged onto facebook.

Please review this article with information from a facebook engineer describing the process:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2011-11-15/facebook-privacy-tracking-data/51225112/1

Once you log onto facebook, even if you immediately log out...everything you do online from that point forward is tracked. If you log out from facebook then a month later visit a porn or politically questionable website, then do nothing for another month and log onto facebook...both CIA and facebook, as well as anyone else they later choose to sell their data to will have a full record and timestamp of those visits, along with everything else you did during those two months. This data is then added to your personal profile and archived indefinitely.

[Scoops Novel]

How about the shameless money-grubbing from the apps, which are all reskinned versions of the same "Click this to maintain it for coins, come back every hour for virtual money and have a certain amount of things you can do which is replenished every time the heat death of the universe happens" game?

Pretty much dead now, i think. How reliable is the site discussing monitoring outside of Facebook? Give me some more links and I'll put it up until it's taken down. Edit: come on, I'm desperate for more sources.

[Leatra]

I'm trying to write about negative aspects of Facebook and I can't really find some good stuff to write about.

How about the fact that facebook is a CIA data mining project?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Facebook#Data_mining
http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/376026/20120822/facebook-cia-darpa-tanking-ipo.htm#.UEhGw41lTQs
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/cia-is-watching-tweets-facebook/2011/11/04/gIQAvyyllM_blog.html

This is not just internet speculation. From the early days there were people connecting the dots and tracking funding sources, but the CIA has since publicly acknowledged that they scour and archive data specifically from facebook and twitter via the DNI Open Source Center.

https://www.cia.gov/news-information/press-releases-statements/press-release-archive-2005/pr11082005.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Source_Center
http://www.npr.org/2012/01/22/145587161/cia-tracks-public-information-for-the-private-eye


The most sinister aspect, however, is that the data mining is NOT merely of data you voluntarily place on facebook. Facebook uses tracking cookies that actively monitor every OTHER website you view, even when you're not logged onto facebook.

Please review this article with information from a facebook engineer describing the process:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2011-11-15/facebook-privacy-tracking-data/51225112/1

Once you log onto facebook, even if you immediately log out...everything you do online from that point forward is tracked. If you log out from facebook then a month later visit a porn or politically questionable website, then do nothing for another month and log onto facebook...both CIA and facebook, as well as anyone else they later choose to sell their data to will have a full record and timestamp of those visits, along with everything else you did during those two months. This data is then added to your personal profile and archived indefinitely.

Holy fucking shit, I used to think that was just some crazy conspiracy stuff. That last link itself is a goldmine for me. Just trying to explain what a "cookie" is to my professor will take long enough for me to fill my given time. I wrote only a few sentences about the privacy issue and I was worried about how I was going to make a point about it. This will definitely help me. Thanks a lot!

I just managed to dish out one and a half pages about narcissistic nature of Facebook that nenjin talked about. I think I got enough stuff to fill my time. Thanks everyone. Still, if you got more ideas I'm all ears. I have time until Monday.