Recently I have been spending alot of time with a friend that uses facebook quite a lot.  He spent most of last night uploading photographs and replying to people in his profile.  I have never been taken with the idea of facebook for many reasons, in fact the only one reason that interested me to join facebook was so that I could play chess against a colleague more easily, although there many websites that allow online chess anyway. 

I think the attraction to facebook for many people is that it does everything for you, keeps all your contacts, all your photos, does instant messaging and many other applications that you can install into your profile.  It is almost a one-stop shop for the internet.  It allows other facebook people to search for you and you can catch up with those kindergarten friends that you haven’t spoken to since your were seven.

The thing that really interests me is, once you get that request from someone saying “add me as a friend” and you tell facebook how you know this person, how do you say no?   It must be such a slap in the face to people when you say no I’d rather not add you as a friend.  Of course it is also a great way to meet back up with all those people from school and kindergarten… 

For me, if I wanted to hang on to those people as friends I am pretty sure that I would have or perhaps I am just a solitary person that doesn’t need an ego massage by having three thousand, two hundred and ninety seven friends on my facebook profile (if I had one).  I am also sure that having my ex-girlfriends as friends on facebook wouldn’t clear my conscience therefore would not allow me to sleep any easier at night (not that I have trouble sleeping, what with all the whiskey I drink), although messaging Elly Wilkinson telling her that “Hah! Mulder and Scully did get together after all!” would make me smile.  And continually harassing Em Sykes for the 800 pounds that she still owes me would certainly make looking at my bank balance easier. 

The other more intriguing side of facebook that does somewhat alarm me is the connections they have with the Central Intelligence Agency, The Department of Defense and the Information Awareness Office.  The agreement you sign with facebook is also worth looking at: “By posting member content to any part of the web site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, perform, display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such information and content and to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such information and content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing”.  In simple terms, when you post it, it’s ours and it better not be copyrighted.  I hear that there is also a clause that allows them to ask which color of underwear you are wearing, but I cannot confirm this.  The first of my two points are well made in the video on this website.

I am impressed by the facebook online community spirit that seems to band people together, I found a few ‘controversies’ in my, erm, ‘research’ of this post.  Amusingly Brody Ruckus started a group with the aim of attracting 100,000 followers.  Why?  The commonwealth times reports that  “his girlfriend agreed to have a threesome if he got to 100,000 group members”.  Apparently Brody got to have his threesome, but if you post images of breastfeeding mums this is classed as “obscene material”, reported here and here.  Now call me liberal but I have no problem with breastfeeding in public places, but apparently facebook has strict guidlines about “obscene material”.  But, hey, they are ok if you are trying to have a threesome…

So to those that have asked me to join facebook so we can keep in touch more easily, I guess facebook is not for me, and I prefer keeping my contacts in outlook, my pictures in flickr and my messaging confined to twitter…but that’s ok.