Cory Doctorow agrees with you. I am not sure if do completely.
My arguments against (your arguments) are thus:
1/ Audience attention and audience demographics have always been a commodity, Facebook is only taking this commodification process one step further by asking users to provide the information, rather than getting it through ratings weeks, purchase patterns and market research. Yes we make their jobs easier, which is perhaps a bad thing. But since this is information I am willingly giving to them - how is it a privacy issue? I clearly don't think pictures of me and my dog are private, and as to what they will do with the data - they will use it to try and sell me shit, just like they would if I took out a subscription to "girl and dog magazine"
2/ The tools we use to express our relationships to each other do not dictate the depth of the relationship. Facebook does not create shallow bonds it may do a better job of expressing them though. (IMHO) If I use facebook to communicate in a shallow (OMG) kinda way, then sure I will not see a significant value in facebook as a social utility. If I use it to express bonds that are meaningful and not shallow than doesn't it's utility as a meaning-making device increase? The nice thing about Facebook is of all the tools I think it offers the most potential to mimic peoples actual social behaviours. People choose to use the apps they like, and then use them in a way that fits their personalities. That's why some FB users make profile pages that look like myspace and others make profile pages that are like a textual answering machine and other people make giant walls with entourages. It's not as simplistic as you are making it out to be here.
3/ Peoples patterns of social bonding are getting very diverse, this week-end I made friends with one guy who lives in Hong-Kong and one who lives in Sweden. The Swedish guy is on Facebook, the Hong-Kong guy ( who by the way I think you'd really like) is totally anti-social apps for very similar reasons to you. I am willing to bet that I will stay in touch with the Swedish guy down the line whereas I can't be so sure about Mr Hong-Kong, he's not going to stay on my social radar the same way - so we'll end up drifting away. So for me, social software despite maybe the limitations of it's utility is important glue for holding some links together.
But hey let's grab a few bee-ahs (that's how Australians say it) when I get home and we can fight it out with an arm wrestle.
What if I don't like Guinness can we still drink
What if I don't like Guinness can we still drink beer?
http://informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=204203573&pg...
Cory Doctorow agrees with you. I am not sure if do completely.
My arguments against (your arguments) are thus:
1/ Audience attention and audience demographics have always been a commodity, Facebook is only taking this commodification process one step further by asking users to provide the information, rather than getting it through ratings weeks, purchase patterns and market research. Yes we make their jobs easier, which is perhaps a bad thing. But since this is information I am willingly giving to them - how is it a privacy issue? I clearly don't think pictures of me and my dog are private, and as to what they will do with the data - they will use it to try and sell me shit, just like they would if I took out a subscription to "girl and dog magazine"
2/ The tools we use to express our relationships to each other do not dictate the depth of the relationship. Facebook does not create shallow bonds it may do a better job of expressing them though. (IMHO) If I use facebook to communicate in a shallow (OMG) kinda way, then sure I will not see a significant value in facebook as a social utility. If I use it to express bonds that are meaningful and not shallow than doesn't it's utility as a meaning-making device increase? The nice thing about Facebook is of all the tools I think it offers the most potential to mimic peoples actual social behaviours. People choose to use the apps they like, and then use them in a way that fits their personalities. That's why some FB users make profile pages that look like myspace and others make profile pages that are like a textual answering machine and other people make giant walls with entourages. It's not as simplistic as you are making it out to be here.
3/ Peoples patterns of social bonding are getting very diverse, this week-end I made friends with one guy who lives in Hong-Kong and one who lives in Sweden. The Swedish guy is on Facebook, the Hong-Kong guy ( who by the way I think you'd really like) is totally anti-social apps for very similar reasons to you. I am willing to bet that I will stay in touch with the Swedish guy down the line whereas I can't be so sure about Mr Hong-Kong, he's not going to stay on my social radar the same way - so we'll end up drifting away. So for me, social software despite maybe the limitations of it's utility is important glue for holding some links together.
But hey let's grab a few bee-ahs (that's how Australians say it) when I get home and we can fight it out with an arm wrestle.