7ToF: Where do you stand on Facebook?

1. Today's topic is Facebook. I know that some of you have never succumbed, so this may bore you to death. But I was in from the start-- I thought it sounded like fun. Facebook had only just opened up to people who weren't students when I joined. I eventually coerced all my family members to sign up, because I could share photos of the grandkids without having to go to the photo store, get copies made, divide them up into envelopes, address them, make the dreaded trip to the post office, and mail them out. I loved it.

2. But fast forward ten years and it's a lot more complicated than it used to be. There are two separate issues if you ask me. For one thing, like Twitter, FB seems to bring out the worst in people. The problems facing us are complex, but we love, love, love the clever one liner (me included. I've liked --and "loved"-- my share of clever memes). Preferably accompanied by a line drawing of a woman in Victorian clothing languishing on a chaise lounge. (where did she come from, anyway?) I've read some thoughtful posts on FB, we all have, but I've also read a lot of reductionist, my-side-zings-harder-than-your-side memes that move us backward into polarized positions instead of forward into new ways of talking about issues.

3. And anyway, as soon as FB's sorting system figures out which "side" you're on, you no longer see anything but the posts you agree with. Unless they're posts contributed by people you're friends with, in which case you get exposed to a side of them you didn't know existed, because in person we're always too polite to argue about politics. It adds a whole new layer of drama to already complicated family dynamics.

4. You can, of course, lock down your FB feed so that you only see posts from the people you want, and only the people you want can see what you post. When I raised concerns about FB with some friends of mine last week, that was the response I got-- just go in and tighten up your privacy settings! You can unfollow someone's posts and still be friends with them! They'll never know! And you can. It's true.

5. But that doesn't solve the second problem. Modifying your privacy settings affects who sees your posts and what posts you see, but it does nothing about what Facebook is learning about you, every time you use it, and even when you're not. In an article for Bloomberg Gadfly, Shira Ovide states:

"In a survey conducted recently by Digital Content Next...a majority of respondents said they didn’t expect the social network to track use of non-Facebook apps to target ads, collect their physical location when they’re not using Facebook or harvest information from non-Facebook websites that people visit. Spoiler alert: Facebook does all of those things."

That's scary stuff. (Read the whole column here.)(And there's another interesting one here.)

6. I'm not worried enough to delete my account yet, but I've stopped using it. Maybe only temporarily, I'm not sure. I've never used FB to log into other apps, so I don't have to worry about that, but FB owns Instagram, which I do use. I never connected the two of them-- in fact, I went out of my way not to connect them-- but it happened anyway. Not long after FB bought instagram, Instagram knew who my FB friends were and started urging me to invite them to join.

7. In a way, it's kind of silly to worry about it. We got an Alexa device for Christmas, and you can read plenty of articles out there that will scare the bejeezus out of you about having an always-on microphone in your living room. But on the other hand, that's the future. Isn't that the way it is in just about every sci-fi TV show/movie/book out there? You talk to the computer, and the computer hears you and responds.

Star Trek Trivia: the voice of the computer in the original Star Trek series was provided by Majel Roddenberry, the wife of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. She also played Nurse Chapel.

The Best Line (arguably) from Galaxy Quest: Sigourney Weaver as Gwen DeMarco, whose job it is to talk to the computer: "Look! I have one job on this lousy ship, it's *stupid*, but I'm gonna do it! Okay?"

And besides, how cool is it to be able to tell Alexa to turn on the lights when you walk into the room with your arms full of laundry? The kids can even turn on the lights over Skype by talking to Alexa when we call them on Sunday night. (yeah, we're easily entertained.)

I don't know what the answer is. But I do know that what I read about Mark Zuckerberg's testimony before congress didn't relieve my worries. If I come to any conclusions, I'll let you know.

Have a great weekend. We are planning on doing a whole lot of not much.