Facebook and Privacy

I was reading this Slate article today, and it struck me once more: people love Facebook, yet they tend to find the service “creepy”. Pardon me, but it’s just naive.

150 millions users, apparently logging in at least once a day. Yes, Facebook is a runaway success. It has made a long way since it’s college-alumni model to a friends-everywhere network.

While some would say that its catch is the mix of voyeurism and exhibitionism, I beg to differ.

Why people join Facebook?

You know what’s the first reason people use Facebook? To reconnect with old friends. And that’s why they keep coming back.

That’s also why I signed in in the first place and certainly why you did too.

I was curious to see how people did interact and who I could find. Well, past colleagues, alumni, long-lost friends, I could find them all and it’s been a rewarding experience to reconnect.

Voyeurism?

Does that make you, me and the 150m others a community of voyeurs?

Well, of course, you could spend hours watching people putting their family pictures, but do you really care? Do you really have the time to do that? And, more to the point, is it Facebook’s fault?

Let me remind those who enjoy criticizing that Facebook is only a platform. No one is forcing you to join and no one is certainly forcing you to put your life online!

And even if we can all admit that procrastinating by staying far too long on the platform happens to the best of us, it’s, again, not Facebook’s fault.

Just stick with one motto, discipline, and you’ll be fine.

Privacy is a choice

Now, if people finding Facebook “creepy” are not actually spending their time watching others’ online lives, their claims must be based on a feeling of others’ prying on their online activity.

Another reminder: it’s all about what you put online. Don’t start adding drunken-parties pictures and then lament that a employer was able to catch them. Don’t engage in touchy subjects like politics and religion if you don’t want others to find out.

Don’t be naive, everything you put online will be found in a way or another. Be smart about it.

Then, come on, Facebook has maybe the best privacy settings management there is, as far as social networks go! You can decide, on an individual level, who is going to have access to your pictures (or set of pictures), the events you’re creating, the notes your writing, to the links you’re sharing.

People that don’t try these and then complaint are just lazy. Full point.

Friends v. Friendship

Another often-heard critic is about the “Friend” term. Are all the people connected with you really “friends”?

It’s just semantics, not a real debate. Friends, in the social networking space, means network. And it’s up to you to decide how you consider the term. If you want to connect with only the people you know, just don’t accept random friend invites. Be coherent.

In my Facebook network, some “Friends” are people I’ve met, some are business partners, some are people I share an interest with and some, the minority -real lasting friendships are scarce- are my real friends.

And like in life, I don’t share the same debates and interests with all of them. On Facebook, I simply use the friends’ list option and privacy settings to fine-tune the activities I display to those different breed of friends.

When not a single business-related “friend” ever gets access to my private pictures, the service does not “creepy”. That’s as simple as that.

Ok, I’ll admit it, there’s one fault-line in my argument: people putting pictures of me without my consent.  That’s where you should be attentive. Being on Facebook gets you more public. Having worked in a highly public job in the past, I deal with it with manner: directly contacting the person. In 99% of the cases, the problem is solved.

Facebook 2.0

Now that you’ve got all this false-debates out of your mind, you can go to the next step and learn that Facebook is not only to reconnect with friends. It also can be a very good tool for networking, telling people about your business or events.

Take me: I came to Japan not knowing a single soul and I wanted to set up my consultancy business. I wanted to learn, I needed exposure and I needed a network.

Searching for people with shared interests, looking at fan pages, exploring and creating groups, browsing through events did put me on the map

That’s bullet-proof: it’s what you want to do with it that will decide how you feel about Facebook. Don’t just be passive. Be proactive.

Trust me, with the current game-changer worldwide trend of a Facebook adoption by a more mature audience, there’s a lot to ponder beyond just listening to people telling you how “creepy” Facebook is.