Is Facebook Evil?

So the smoke clears, and clarity of vision slowly returns.

I have a Facebook page.

I like it.

With friends being 10,000 miles away, it is an easy and convenient way of keeping in touch.

I had previously added my credit card details. Today I realised they still had my details, and I wanted to remedy this. These details should not be "kept on file" by anyone, other than me.

But could I remedy it? Facebook does not make it easy. In fact, I would go so far as to say they are obstructive.

I read FAQ's, I visited forums, I asked the lurkers in the ether of Facebook for help. None of the information provided by Facebook was helpful or direct.

Basically, every time I tried to delete my credit card details, I was met with a message telling me I could only continue with this decision, if I gave another "funding source". How ridiculous!

Eventually I tried to delete my Facebook account.

I couldn't!

Again, they make this difficult, though not impossible (I am a resourceful laddy). You can easily choose to de-activate your account, but all your information, details, pictures, links etc., remain on Facebook's system. Assurance is given by telling people that other Facebook users can't see this information.

I don't care. It is still there!

Anyway, eventually I found a link to permanently delete my account, in the convoluted rabbit warren that is the Facebook Help Centre. I haven't done this, yet.

I have emailed Facebook, asking them to remove my credit card details. I hope they will respond quickly, but of course it is a holiday weekend. Typical!

But this got me thinking -

Is Facebook evil?

There was a news story recently about a lady who had her house robbed. This happened, after she told the world, via Facebook, that she was going out to a concert. One of her "friends" had seen her "status update" and opportunistically took advantage of her unwittingly leaving herself vulnerable.

Disclosure has been an issue, in the context of social media, for years. Fraud, identity theft, cyber bullying / harassment and general abuse of information by employers, colleagues and "cyber peers" have been ongoing. People over-share. People like to over-share. And Facebook monopolises on this.

Over sharing leads to the voyeur in all of us being appeased. Another way of creating dependency. Do we need to know what someone is doing every 5 minutes, what jobs they have, what photo's, friends and lovers they have? Facebook, cleverly, has taken real people, and created real life soap opera's.

There are, in addition to simply keeping in touch with loved ones, Facebook groups, Fan pages, games and as many different applications as you can imagine, to distract you, get you hooked and take your money.

Yes! Facebook is not as free as you think.

If you want to take Facebook games to the next level, for example, you often have to pay. And like all good scams, it starts off small.

Okay, perhaps Facebook isn't evil. It is a double edged sword, that can be used for good and for bad.

As long as we keep this in mind, and learn to protect ourselves and our information, we should be sitting pretty.

But remember, before you join a group, or update your status, or share your photo's...are you happy with the WHOLE world seeing it? Because they can!