Facebook as Big Brother

I quite like Facebook for its shallowness and irreverent fun. I am certain that I am unimportant enough to worry about being bookmarked and socially indexed. Tom Hodgkinson in the Guardian thinks otherwise.

I despise Facebook. This enormously successful American business describes itself as "a social utility that connects you with the people around you". But hang on. Why on God's earth would I need a computer to connect with the people around me? Why should my relationships be mediated through the imagination of a bunch of supergeeks in California? What was wrong with the pub?

And does Facebook really connect people? Doesn't it rather disconnect us, since instead of doing something enjoyable such as talking and eating and dancing and drinking with my friends, I am merely sending them little ungrammatical notes and amusing photos in cyberspace, while chained to my desk? A friend of mine recently told me that he had spent a Saturday night at home alone on Facebook, drinking at his desk. What a gloomy image. Far from connecting us, Facebook actually isolates us at our workstations.

Fair enough, but some of the heavier stuff later on is a bit chilling. Apparently some of the venture capital money is funded by the CIA venture capital fund and one of the current boare members is associated with that group. Interesting.

Seems that we all just need to lay back and smell the roses as Big Brother rolls down the hill (gathering moss?)

Or is it a snowball?

Enjoy it while you can, before you are unwillingly dragged into a battle that you had no idea you were part of.

Thanks Peter Black from Freedom to Differ.