Facebook is like a fridge. You keep checking it, but there's nothing good. ~ facebook status

It was March 26th 2007 when I first logged into Facebook. And, after adding a few pictures to the family album, I spent the next couple months just browsing through the site reminiscent of my past , (some wannabe developer) and wishing that my name was Mark E Zuckerberg. But that was almost ten years ago! Today, in all modesty, I’m just happy to be the person I am. 

My first words posted on Facebook on July 26th 2007 were: : at home. I wasn’t really at home, least not the home I had hoped for, nor did I believe anyone actually cared. (Notably this was not one of the more happier times in my life!) Then along came Facebook.  Promising to connect the world, which at the time, I would have believed to be just another fairy tale. However once you were drawn in, you could then easily visualise the potential such an open community may have enabling communications around the world,  knowing very little if anything ,of the dangers it represents. It seemed like another world where one was free to privately share all their secrets, and interact freely with people all around the world. Or so we were led to believe.  Like I said previously, that was 10 years ago!

Then suddenly, everyone’s taking about it!

“Just weeks after the launch of Canada's largest-ever pro-privacy Coalition, it seems the whole country is demanding answers on the government's out-of-control surveillance.”

Not only was this happening in Canada, seems the NSA has been recording us for years without our knowledge. Thanks to Edward Snowden the NSA was exposed and shed some light on what really is going on in and around social networking sites, and Facebook in particular.

A exemplary article published by the ACLU, (American Civil Liberties Union) So you think you have nothing to hide... probably say’s it best when talking about our most personable and sensitive information!

Privacy isn't the same as secrecy. Privacy is about controlling information about you, including who knows what, under what circumstances, and when. Privacy is about being in control and in charge of your own life, and having the power to shape other people's perceptions of you. Today, we are effectively at the mercy of millions of unknown people who lord over us the power to destroy our reputations, relationships, and professional lives with the click of a button.

Yet when we look at the Facebook of today, it has become undeniably some kind of super informational commodity being bought and sold at the highest price! How subtle were the changes that led us down the path, silently robbing all civilization of our identities, whether intentional or not! I’m sure if you were to ask, your immediate response would be that is not of their intention. If like me however, you have been there from the beginning, you would now realize what a costly mistake we have all made and how Facebook , much like the other huge corporations, has slowly become just another evil empire.

What we once thought we had control over, has once again been taken over by corporate greed and the all mighty dollar. (Much like the Conservative Party has done to Canada…) Recently while touring around and trying to get a better understanding of how Facebook works, I’ve come to notice that changes are constantly and silently being made which can become pretty confusing at times for the best of us! Settings changed without notice, select posts showing in our news feeds. Missing entries in our timeline. Notes I assumed I had shared with only my friends had somehow become public for the whole world to see. Seems we have also lost the ability to share notes from one of our pages to another or share with a friend, which I must admit found a little unusual. The list of changes goes on forever. Yet like a true puppet master, Facebook has once again changed the rules to accommodate those of their shareholders who will stop at nothing , marketing our very existence to the highest bidder. Let’s just call it what it is… “Social Harvesting”

Personally, when I look at some of the newly implemented practices on Facebook,  I am deeply concerned. What showed promise to bring the world together and make it a more open and better place, is now robbing our children, and yes, even some of us other people, of our life and liberty, all while putting some imaginary price on our heads. As we all have probably seen in the coverage recently on numerous media outlets, No one is exempt It’s become our duty as parents in to instil better discipline in our children when it comes to social networking, and their online habits in general. We must teach them how to protect the very commodity they own, themselves! Not an easy task in this day and age, but a necessity. Our personal information is now fast becoming a valuable commodity, and for more reasons than one may expect.  You only have to open your mind to see the endless possibilities here.

On the other hand, I believe social networking does have it’s merits and plays an important part, as does the internet, in helping to bring people together and shape tomorrows' future. But still we must insist that our personal information remains just that, personal! Our information should not be freely shared across the web, unless of course that is what you choose. I believe that if we choose to share our personal information with sites like Facebook, Twitter,  and Linked-In etc.… Then it is they who should be held accountable and to make sure it is protected. Our information should not be freely shared at any cost, nor at any time…

Then again, who are we kidding! Welcome to Facebook in the 21st Century!