So let’s just come right out and ask this question: Just exactly how private IS Facebook, anyway? I mean, really. How well thought out and secure has this site been made since its inception? It’s not like you guys really wanted my opinion, but this site can’t be as secure as the nearest credit union or armored truck. Or even Thursday morning’s trash dumpster. I say this because I really don’t see anything that warrants a restriction to my account, and, last time I checked, my mother never laid a finger on me to punish me when I was a child, so ‘cyber-punishment’ is the biggest and latest joke to me.

 

This whole thing got started by a random post I was tagged in. My account was supposed to be setup to where I am the only one who can post anything to my page, yet I get tagged in a post and it appears where? On my page. SECURITY BREACH, Zuckerburg! Now, these are rules that you put into place on YOUR SITE. These are options that you made available on YOUR SITE. If anyone should be concerned about their privacy, it should be me, because someone has figured out how to compromise what is supposed to be a secured page, free of SPAM and free of daily Facebook nonsense. Soul: 1, Zuckerburg: 0. Anywho, I decided to entertain it and I clicked on the post because it came from one of my friends. At first I really didn’t think anything of it because it really didn’t get that much attention in the beginning. But, then it grew legs. And it grew legs right on my page when I’m trying to promote my own status message. And, as it stands, anything that is shown on my page can be viewed by anyone and can be commented on by anyone. So, when I posted a comment to it, some of my friends did too.

 

The next thing I did was took matters into my own hands. Since the post took off on its own, I decided to make peace with the few people that posted and ‘liked’ the post. Hey, you’re on my page, you may as well kick it with me instead of take up space. So I attempted to befriend those people. Now, here’s where I come to odds with Facebook. You know how you sit on the homepage and off to the side it has a section labeled ‘People You May Know’, and gives you the option to add that person as a friend? Now, I’m reminded of the good old MySpace days, where it really didn’t matter who you added, and if you were a recording artist, the user had the option not to add them—which really was an option I hated, because what’s the point of having the site if you can’t build with the people on it. Well, it’s kinda the same issue here. The problem here is, if you don’t know the person, you can’t connect with them at all. And it’s mainly due to this so-called ‘privacy law’. But wait, didn’t the website give you the option to ‘add them as a friend’? And didn’t it let you follow through with most of the requests anyway? I mean, technically, I don’t know many famous celebrities and they don’t know me. But, how do you get to know someone unless you are given the opportunity? And if you really wanna be technical, I CAN say I know them, cause I’ve sat mercilessly in front of BET’s crappy programming every week to watch the same 4 movies they show so much that one can recite the whole dialogue with no script. I mean, really…how many times can you show ‘Baby Boy’, ‘Stomp The Yard’, ‘Video Girl’, and ‘Notorious’ in a week?

 

Anywho, these weren’t celebrities. These were people like you and me, who enjoy chatting with people every day and click the ‘like’ button on whatever looks interesting or sounds profound. They don’t read their private messages much. They post carelessly. They let just anything come through the ticker and lure you in. Well, not all, but some of them do. Now, if you don’t want to be bothered and your page is restricted to only people that know you, that’s great. But I have a question. What exactly are you doing on Facebook? If you are that private of an individual, why would you be involved on a social networking site such as this? Is it because you didn’t want to pay the $30 bucks a month to have people search for you on MyLife? Or do you think your stuff smells sweeter than most? I ‘secured’ my page to keep out the SPAM, and most of the time it works, which again makes me question the security of Facebook. Soul: 2, Zuckerburg: 0.

 

Oh no, wait, I get it. You’re trying to save your 5,000 person limit for people you truly adore and talk to all the time. Really. Who knows 5,000 people like that, cause many of us don’t respond to ONE message. So here’s what happened. There was a notification to add this celebrity as a friend. When I made the attempt, it said you cannot add someone you don’t know. I’m thinking, I’ve bought their albums and listened to them live, why not allow me to build with them. Isn’t that the whole point of social media? Plus, why do they have a page if they cannot get acquainted with the folk that support them. Well, once I did that, my page was put in ‘Facebook detention’ for clicking on someone I don’t know. Really. First I’m getting tagged in something that’s posted on my page without MY permission, then I deal with it and the people in the post and I’m the bad guy? Look, fishing lures are only used for fishing. If this site has privacy concerns, then don’t you think that the concerned individuals will deal with any issues on their own? Think about The Constitution and one’s right to free speech. How does the system know if I know or don’t know someone? Do THEY know my family tree? And why do I have to feel like I’m on pins and needles for stuff I may post or click on?

 

There is nothing completely private on Facebook. Never will be. I’m added to random groups and sent requests for some of the most off-the-wall stuff. The point is, I reserve the right to accept it or deny it. It should be the same way with adding or requesting friends, regardless of who they are. ‘Tom’ has like a billion friends on MySpace. Zuckerburg allows 5k. Doesn’t that in itself seem like an epic fail to you?

 

Let’s see who ‘Likes’ this post