urban defect: facebook

More of a social defect really, the current flap over facebook-beacon highlights our latest acceleration toward the Privacy Free Society. The convenience of digital communication has made us all complicit, but facebook really gets it out there in your, well, face.

facebook is kind of a digital equivalent of gay sex in the 1970s. There's a new freedom that's fun, exhibitionist and promiscuous, and "all of my friends are doing it, so where's the harm?"

The voyeurism and exhibitionism is pandered to so expertly in facebook that we can't help but gulp it down, browsing through those ever growing lists of friends and idling for endless hours in the shallowest sort of pseudo relationships.

But exposure increases vulnerability. Beacon broadcasts your purchases out to the facebook cohort you're a member of. Groovy if you're shopping at Dolce and Gabbana I guess, but if you're buying Viagra or adult diapers it's everybody's business too.

Really, do you want to see all that detail from everyone around you? Do you want all of them looking at yours?

It's like wireblight: sometimes it's just better to hide more of the plumbing behind nice, plain walls. The only folks it's really useful for are the ones trying to tap in and analyze or modify whatever it is you're spending you shekels on. I think it's safe to assume that most of these folks probably don't have your best interests in mind.