Facebook is sucking the identity out of you! Quick, change all your settings!

If you believe the hype, and the posts on Facebook, and the media, Facebook has taken over the world and nothing you post is private. For example, this circulated recently:

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg doesn't believe in privacy

My response: Why should he believe in privacy?

He's running a business. A business you (we) opted to partake in that's totally built on us voluntarily sharing information. When did we all start believing that ANYTHING is for free? There is always a price. And for all of us (like hundreds of millions of us!) to be able to post pictures, share links, create events and invitations, share thoughts and take up server space do you really think that comes at no cost?

How many of us heard over the years "don't sent personal information through email, especially at work." You know why? You don't own it. If you use the channel to send it, you lose rights to it.

So the smart thing to do is try to take some control back. READ YOUR AGREEMENTS with these social network sites. If that's too boring, at least explore the Accounts area of your "page" and set it at the level you feel comfortable with - and don't panic - Facebook really isn't going to do much more than try to serve up a bunch of targeted ads to you. I'd actually love more targeted ads. I don't need a Russian bride, thanks - but I could use a cute pair of summer shoes! Who's having a sale?

More importantly, if your kids are on Facebook, check out their settings too.  Until they're 21 (ok, 18), I say you login and see what they have going on in there and set it to Friends Only.  Oh, and you may want to check out their 647 closest friends, too. I can barely manage 150. Is that 47 year old man from Detroit really a friend? Ick.

The point is, if you put information up on a web site then businesses and their creators have a right to try and make a buck. I mean, what is the world, really, without a few more computer geek gazillionaires walking the planet? 

Hello...can you hear me?

Growing up in my house there was a piece of hardware hanging on the kitchen wall called the telephone. It was quite important to us. It would make a ringing sound when people wanted to find out how your day was, what you had been up to, and when they might see you again. I used to stretch the cord that hung from this device all the way from the kitchen, down the hall and into the bathroom for secret conversations! Or, I'd lock myself in my parent's bedroom since I wasn't allowed to have one of these in my room until I was in college.

When I talked to my girlfriends it usually went something like this,

"So, did you finish the English homework?"
"What was she thinking wearing white heels in February?"
"Didn't he look so cute??? I will marry him some day."
Breathing...breathing....sigh....
"OK, I have to get off because my mother is waiting for my brother to call to get picked up."

There were busy signals, rotary dialing and no caller ID. You never knew who was going to be on the other end. That was the excitement. And this is how we communicated...for hours...and hours...and no one ever said, 'Well, I'll let you go. I know you're busy" after 10 mins of talking. You were on the phone. You were supposed to talk and listen and ignore the world around you.

Fascinating, isn't it? There's one or two of these telephones in my house now. But they don't make much noise. They ring with the occasional "unknown caller", non-profit solicitation, or family call to check-in.

I'm sure as the children get older it might get more use. For now, it seems the clicking of the keyboard has taken over the ringing of the phone. Twitter. Facebook. Email. Texting. IM. Blogs. I like the outbound aspect of these channels mainly because of the amount of time I spend multi-tasking between conversations. With the click of a button I can switch between this conversation, the one inbound to my email, and the tweet dropping across the screen.

But thinking back on it, I sure did enjoy the ringing of the phone. The absolute knowing when someone was being sarcastic, or laughing or crying. There was no reading between the lines because there were no lines - just voices. Funny how the cell phone has made it more convenient to make a call, yet I use mine for everything but phone calls.

If you get a chance, drop me a line. I'd love to hear from you.