(ThyBlackMan.com) Today Facebook began it’s IPO tour. Tomorrow the social network will force everyone to live online forever through the mandatory Timeline. It’s just another step for the company that is half effective and half diabolical.
When Facebook first came out I wasn’t too keen on it. I had already joined MySpace and was weary of another social network that I didn’t understand. But all I heard in my dorm was “Facebook, Facebook, Facebook” so like most 18-year-olds I logged on to the site for students and haven’t logged off since.
It’s been seven years since I’ve had a Facebook profile. I long for the days when it was just for college students but I guess if that were true I would have deleted my profile immediately after graduation. 
The problem with Facebook is that it is useful. It really does have a functional purpose for me to leave my account open. It’s easier to talk to friends who may not check their phones but will most likely be sitting at a computer all day trying to waste time. It’s useful for growing traffic to this site. We use it at work often and it just really works. But despite all that functionality the social network has a very dark side.
First off it’s privacy policy is absolutely ridiculous. Once you share on Facebook the company can do what they please with what you’ve posted and will not delete anything. Ever. If the U.S. government tried that there would be a second revolution. There’s still anger harbored for the Patriot Act. And the FBI’s new plan to stay abreast of bad guys isn’t too popular either. Secondly, Facebook could seriously get you in trouble. Well technically you get yourself in trouble but Facebook doesn’t help by being the vehicle for that trouble. Say the wrong thing lose a job, lose a college acceptance, even lose a relationship.
Navigating the world in the time of Facebook is tricky. It’s best to be honest but not too honest. It’s good to show you have fun but not too much fun. Like underage drinking fun. That’s a solemn “no.” It’s good to take a vested interest in your work but not so much the boss is always checking your page to make sure you didn’t do anything to shame the company.
Because of Facebook and the advent of so many other social sites what you do in the virtual world is more important now than what you do in the real world. That is absolutely terrifying. In the interwebs you must at all times cover your tracks while in the real world there remains a 50-50 chance of not getting caught at whatever dirty deed you do. Online you live forever. It is Schismatrix Plus come to life. We are all Abelard Lindsey. Vessels of downloaded information stored in computers that travel with us no matter how we evolve. Our past is still there and it is always changing someone else’s perception of your presence.
That is a power no man should have. It is possibly a power no man should have ever created. But now that it is here we must contend with it and what will happen as soon as that power gets into the hands of Wall Street investors, a board of directors, and advertisers who believe greed is good and will do anything in life to make 900 billion people bleat like drones as Big Brother looks on.
Thank you Mark Zuckerburg it is 1984 dystopic cyberpunk style.
Have you limited your online presence because of all of the changes to Facebook?
Staff Writer; Nikesha Leeper
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