Facebook - friend or foe?

Cyrus · #**331** (**permalink**) 03-03-2010, 13:05

Didn't realise quite how big FB has become.

The state of the internet.

Grum · #**332** (**permalink**) 26-03-2010, 15:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyrus

Didn't realise quite how big FB has become.

The state of the internet.

Ever tried to buy a server and wondered why the salesman wasn't interested or too busy?

According to that video Facebook has 30,000 servers and that number is still growing. Edit:- In an FT article from March 2009, "20 per cent of all the servers sold around the world each year are now being bought by a small handful of internet companies - he named Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and Amazon"

Here's a wild idea:- The Bank of Facebook. This chap is guesstimating that Facebook could reach a billion users by the end of 2012.

Cyrus · #**333** (**permalink**) 27-04-2010, 10:12

You can see what's available through the FB API with a new tool. Mine is reassuringly full of "data (empty)" comments. It lists all the stuff I'm a fan of, but I realised that was a marketing ploy anyway, and one I bought into.

Tool here.

if you're seeing too much, you might want to check your security settings.

Grum · #**334** (**permalink**) 28-04-2010, 16:21

The discuss this link off that page is worth a read.

Edit:I've just used that tool to look up a friend's Facebook entry and the only entry I found was a picture of his toddler. Should I be allowed to do that without a Facebook account?

In related news, Germany has got upset about Google camera cars collecting information about wireless networks they find.

Quote:

Google Germany said it had never been a secret that it was mapping WLANs and denied it was illegal, saying many companies already did this. “It’s not new, and we’re not the only ones doing it,” said spokesman Kay Oberbeck.

La Lucy · #**335** (**permalink**) 06-05-2010, 23:10

6 things you need to know about Facebook

BigD · #**336** (**permalink**) 07-05-2010, 08:42

Scary stuff. Especially this bit:

Facebook has removed your ability to restrict its use of this information. The new privacy controls only affect your information's "Visibility," not whether it is "publicly available."
Explaining what "publicly available" means, Facebook writes:

"Such information may, for example, be accessed by everyone on the Internet (including people not logged into Facebook), be indexed by third party search engines, and be imported, exported, distributed, and redistributed by us and others without privacy limitations."

I'm one of these people that would like the benefits of professional networking, but I am not prepared to put uniquely identifable data online. Putting up a professional profile is obviously difficult if you don't want to use your real name, and "developed rebranding at company A" and "spend 5 years as Head of Marketing at Company B" does make it pretty easy to relate your information.
Using a nom-de-plume does not instil confidence for a professional business contact and it prevents real colleagues and potential clients and partners (professional!) from contacting you.

It seems that getting the benefits from online networking is difficult without selling your privacy.

BigD

Grum · #**337** (**permalink**) 27-05-2010, 13:33

In the news again

Quote:

Facebook simplifies controls but continues exposing users

...

"While we acknowledge Facebook for putting right the mess that it created last December by deploying unusable settings, this latest action is only the first of many steps to be taken before the company can even hint that it understands the nature of privacy," it said.

Key to PI's concerns are that the default settings, which few users change, open up most of what a user posts on the site to the internet as a whole.

"The defaults - which Facebook unhelpfully describes as 'recommended settings' - are still set to for maximum disclosure to everyone. That means the vast majority of users will continue to operate on the site fully exposed. The company has done little to change this situation," PI said.

Reastygraben · #**338** (**permalink**) 31-05-2010, 09:42

College Students Are Less Empathic Than Generations Past

"The rise of social media sites like Facebook, MySpace and Flikr, has been accompanied by fears that we are producing the most narcissistic “Generation Me” in history. But is there any actual scientific evidence for that view?

Well, a study of 14,000 college students found that today’s young people are 40 percent less empathetic than college kids from 30 years ago. The research was presented this weekend at the annual meeting of Association for Psychological Science."

Cyrus · #**339** (**permalink**) 31-05-2010, 09:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reastygraben

College Students Are Less Empathic Than Generations Past

"The rise of social media sites like Facebook, MySpace and Flikr, has been accompanied by fears that we are producing the most narcissistic “Generation Me” in history. But is there any actual scientific evidence for that view?

Well, a study of 14,000 college students found that today’s young people are 40 percent less empathetic than college kids from 30 years ago. The research was presented this weekend at the annual meeting of Association for Psychological Science."

I'm not so sure social networking sites are responsible for that.

Grum · #**340** (**permalink**) 31-05-2010, 11:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyrus

I'm not so sure social networking sites are responsible for that.

The answer might be right in that article:

Quote:

O’Brien also notes that students are facing increasing competition so they’re spending much more time working on their grades and resumes, instead of socializing.

We saw this effect in my last year at college. A recession was biting, and the new intake were a lot more serious.

Some of them were even wearing ties to lectures

- totally unheard of a couple of years earlier