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shut your facebook Facebook is yet another free online disservice that positions itself between people and cheapens you.
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Virginia Hefferman, Facebook Exodus, Sunday NYTimes Magazine; 26 August 2009.
"It is not 'your' Facebook profile, it is Facebook's profile about you."
Matthew Hays, Shut Your Facebook, ADVOCATE.com; 24 November 2009.
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get the shirt!
I have silkscreened a number of 'shut your facebook' tshirts and still have some for sale at $30 (Canadian dollars) each (shipping & tax included). They're 100% Cotton quality "Gildan" shirts that make great gifts. Plus they're a great conversation starter for meeting and making new REAL friends. |
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Interesting And Useful Articles & Movies
The Times of India published a letter I wrote in response to an article of theirs that lamented the problems with "Social Networking" sites but stated that people can't afford to opt-out of the internet.
TIMES OF INDIA TOP COMMENT 11 Jun 2010
OWNERSHIP = CONTROL | CONTROL = OWNERSHIP Proprietary social networking websites are brutal. The not-so-subtle issue is ownership wherein Facebook and the like have all the power and you and your friends have none. The 'Terms of Service' and 'Privacy Policies' of social networking websites are of no practical value. Facebook.com is Facebook's website and as such it requires no reason and can do as it pleases without your permission, including censor and otherwise misrepresent you and misuse your identity. When it does there is nothing you can do to stop it. Facebook and the like can and often do arbitrarily remove content, such as art it doesn't like, or the "World Naked Bike Ride: Toronto" group. The WNBR is an annual family event to protest oil dependency. There was nothing particularly 'adult' in the totally friendly photos that had been there for two years and what's more, so what if there had been? Inasmuch as you and others subscribe to Facebook, it can and does unilaterally enforce its concept of 'acceptable' onto you and your society. It is therefore Facebook's social network, not yours, even though it is your picture and name that appear to endorse Facebook's behavior when you do not. Only somone suffering from Stockholm Syndrome would maintain that Facebook has to "draw the line somewhere". Facebook can delete whatever it pleases without a policy, reason, or line of any kind. If you wish to maintain personal integrity and encourage it in others then YOU have to draw the line; with the likes of Facebook on the unacceptable side. Facebook is worse than useless to you because facebook.com is Facebook's website, not yours. It is not 'your' profile, it is Facebook's profile about you. Those are not your friends, they are at best a Facebook sanitized version of your friends. It took centuries of political evolution to reduce this kind of manipulative abuse from the state - why go backwards to a medieval social structure with you at the bottom? You wouldn't holiday in North Korea, so why would you spend time on Facebook?! Online social networking is not the problem, proprietary online social networking is. To maintain integrity as a person, some things you have to do yourself. Social networking, be it online or off, is one of them. You must vote by yourself. You must have your own bank account and as Virginia Wolf pointed out, have a room of your own. Likewise, you must own your internet domain name so you can engage with the internet on your own terms. Nobody can own your domain name 'for' you. The principle of ownership is not new. Facebook owns what it allows you to believe is 'your social network' where Facebook has the unfettered ability to distort or remove 'your' content or even 'you'. And worse yet, if Facebook succeeds in making you feel dependent, then by threat of removal it can manipulate you. Inasmuch as Facebook or the like is just silly fluff, it is a total waste of your precious time. Inasmuch as you fancy it to be a "practical tool" you are putting yourself and your social networks in an extremely vulnerable position by foolishly lending your identity to Facebook. You abducate control over the very same you that people mean when they ask if you are on Facebook. Secondary to the central issue of ownership is the lie of faux convenience. Websites like Facebook are set up to make it easy to become entangled, but difficult to leave. Just like cigarettes, proprietary social networking websites are especially formulated to create a hamster-wheel of dependence that the user must recognize and rise above in order to quit. You are the hamster. It saw you coming. Do you have an exit strategy? Do you have all your important contacts' email addresses so you can contact them yourself WITHOUT Facebook and without your contacts needing to be on Facebook? Using Facebook is like gambling; the casino gains your trust and promises you riches (convenience and popularity). The truth is that only the house that owns and controls the system has any real advantage. If you want to reach millions of strangers, broadcast mediums like print or radio are the better way. If you want to reach friends, family and colleagues, use your OWN mailing list(s). Owning and maintaining your own mailing list and your own website at your own domain is like building your own house out of brick on your own land. Facebook and similar shenanigans are like beling allowed to stay in a straw firetrap so long as you pleasure its owner. Proprietary social networks put you in a very bad position. Facebook cheapens you. If you are not self-possessed, in control of your own faculties and responsible for your own identity, then what's the point in being you? Best to all,
Leif Harmsen And please, people! Never ever upload your list of contacts to Facebook or the like! To do so is a betrayal of everyone who trusted you with their names and email addresses.
urban dictionary
You expect ME to sign up with Yahoo! just so I can see your holiday photos?! Shut your facebook! You can vote for this definition at urbandictionary.com!
Privately owned 'communities' are not communities.
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