There is an article on here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/23/facebook_disease_study/
based on an article published by Princeton that predicts the eventual demise of Facebook. More interesting than the article (which in my opinion is a better total waste of US taxpayer’s money than anything they have done in Iraq this century) are the reader’s replies which ARE extremely informative.
Comparing Facebook to Vivaldi and this site’s emulation of what I don’t want in a blog ie for example the Friends section.
Do I want the world to know who my friends are?
Why must I feel compelled to reply to the requests for friendship?
I don’t even understand what that stuff is all about. All I can see is that I am going to befriend someone I don’t even know, may not even like and possibly has a reputation that might harm mine by association. Or worse still, ask me for money.
Or I am going to offend and upset someone who has done me no harm and might have wished me well. Might even have become a real friend or at the least, useful to me or another associate.
I don’t buy into the article’s claims. Social networks are here to stay (at least for the foreseeable future). When I see my grandson’s network and the activity shared there, I know they’re still relevant. I love the fact that I can easily connect with family and friends, share pictures, make new friends, chat a bit… and so forth. People love to predict the demise of giants and this is no different.
Now the idea of turning Vivaldi into a Facebook look-alike is not particularly appealing to me BUT there’s no denying that Vivaldi “is” a social network. That’s what blogs are all about. That’s what forums are all about. And that is what people are attracted to and why MyOpera was so loved and why people are migrating here.
I don’t know how it might happen either. One of the replies stated that MySpace has disappeared. That is still going too.
I don’t think this site can compete with other blog sites on their terms. It has to offer something new, something interesting ans something that would make people feel safer.
Not necessarily in that order.
What is a fact is that most people are almost totally unaware of what effect the information they post is capable ofhaving nor what it is revealing.
How many honest citizens have considered what dishonest citizens can make of their data? And how many less are worried about what honest people are likely to make?
I am not being paranoid, we don’t know what use potential employers will make of us online. A firm such as Amazon that is policed by low life would possibly be making sure their employees are not speaking ill of them. But how do we know who we are going to be going cap in hand to one day?
Paranoid, I know.
But only the paranoid survive.
I think we make more of this business than is warranted. Look, I fully agree that we need to exercise reasonable caution. I’m not going to give my “real” name nor am I going to give my “exact” location. I’m not going to give out specific, identifying information in a blog simply because I like to grandstand and engage in a little narcissism. On the other hand, were it not for “some” information being shared, I would not be married now to this beautiful woman I met online back in 98. You’re going to have to accept that your information is there for others to gain access to EVEN IF you pull the plug on the computer. It resides on your doctor’s records, your employer’s records, the DMV’s records, the government’s records and countless others with whom you’ve had to do business of some sort. The “paranoid” do not necessarily survive any better than the reasonably cautious, albeit, I don’t relish living my life by constantly looking over my shoulder.