Open Thread: Have You Had it with Facebook?
Sometimes a company goes from media darling to media whipping boy seemingly overnight. Case in point: Facebook, which seems to have changed from essential networking tool to evil violator of privacy in the blink of an eye, thanks to its “Beacon” advertising platform. If you read the tech press and social media blogs, it’s become hard to avoid stories about how this is a PR disaster and a real stumble for the company. One of Fortune’s columnists has even written Facebook’s obituary, and the company has backed down from its initial design and done some public apologizing.
But you know, the media and the blogs aren’t the universe. Like any other social network, Facebook is made up of its users, not pundits. So let’s ask you, the users. If you’re on Facebook, have you followed this story? Has it made any difference in your Facebook use? Are you thinking of cutting back, opting out, or leaving entirely? Or is this just the media echo chamber, working itself up over something that real users don’t really care about?
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I’ve certainly had it with the endless stories about the thing, both the initial wonder and its ubiquity, and not the slide into infamy. One service among many, not that useful, and damned sure not important. It certainly doesn’t warrant all the navel gazing posts that keep cluttering up my rss reader.
I still like facebook because I can catch up with folks in one fell swoop. But I did install the De-Beacon add-on for firefox.
I used to be on it. I deleted my account just a few days before Beacongate, simply because I was wasting too much time fighting vampires or doing random useless movie quizzes.
I’ve reclaimed many wasted hours!
While my account is still there, it’s languishing because frankly, I don’t have time for Yet Another Social Network ™. But I will say that we’ve put our company’s development of Facebook apps on hold while Beacongate plays out. Too many other better options for our limited resources right now.
Still an avid Facebook user, though I am a bit put off on the whole Beacon thing, though I didn’t keep up with out.
I don’t understand this whole thing. I’m an avid Facebook user, and I’ve seen no evidence of this new feature… and i have probably well over 200 friends, so surely something would have come up?
I still use Facebook, though I too am tired about hearing about Beacon. Mistakes happen, and at least they are attempting to make amends.
In a living, growing organization it’s easy to go off-course. As outsiders with our hindsight at 20/20 it’s easy to say that they are evil, full of hubris, or whatever. But what we should remember is that smart companies are always experimenting with new ideas. Some of those ideas pan out, and some don’t. It’s the nature of life as well as business. Rare is the time when a single mistake will take down an entire company.
The real gauge of a business (or a person, for that matter) is their behavior over time.
Yes, I deactivated my account last week.
It’s not much of a thing for me. I use FB mostly for family traffic. As Dawn has done, I installed the De-Beacon addon, but even without it I doubt Beacon would concern me much.
Now, if it was EquiFax we’re talking about. . .
Maybe a missed the wagon on this, but I never really got into facebook. I use social networking sites that are trade specific.