Facebook is one of the most popular topics on the Internet nowaday. Although I have a Facebook account myself, I intend not to use it because of the risk that you have to take from the nature of Facebook and similar networks, as compared to traditional social utilities such as MSN Messenger and ICQ.
Traditional Tools
When using MSN Messenger and ICQ, I know that my contact lists are not revealed to the public. I know that my relationships and connections with other people are not exposed. This gave me the security to establish relationships freely with anybody because no other people can see who is on my list. Nobody can take advantage of me based on my relationships with others.
Dangers in Facebook
Unlike traditional social utilities, Facebook and other similar networks reveal all your connections to the public. Even if you don’t use Facebook, your relationships are still revealed by others through different ways such as tagged pictures. You can no longer keep your relationships a secret. For instance, if you tell me that you have never met “somebody”, but then I have found a picture on Facebook that has you and “somebody” in it, then I would know you have lied to me.
In a worse scenario, if one of your friend has done something unlawful, then people can find out through Facebook that you are his friend and they may stereotype you as another unlawful person. This stereotype may expand to other people who has connection with this unlawful guy. It will have a negative effect on those people around him.
Besides the connections being revealed, your ranking of the connections could be revealed too. I can probably have a general idea of who you like the most or which relationship you value the most by checking how many digital gifts you may have sent to a particular person. I can also check what you wrote to others to get clues about how well your relationships are. There are just too many clues out there on Facebook to draw a lot of information about you. If these information is collected by your enemies or by some unlawful people, you are being put into a dangerous position and there is no way to stop them from getting these info.
I Still Need It But…
One day, I may need to play around with Facebook myself in order to provide technical support to my customers. However, I will not use it as a tool to communicate with others or build up any relationships. The consequences can be way too serious than one could imagine.
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