Facebook gives users webspace to upload pictures of themselves, write crap, and whatever. It's like Geocities or Fortunecity used to be except Facebook has a very odd ulterior motive behind it.
It takes all your data and sells it to advertising firms who use that data to figure out how to sell products to you. It sells everything you put on it, even your personal private messages, and even the stuff you deleted. The ad agencies then crawl through all the data and draw up battle plans. I really hope this is done by a program which searches out popular terms used and compiles them, I hope ad firms aren't paying people to read everyone's status updates and private messages to figure out how they should make their next commercial. A theoretical conversation at an ad agency could be something like this:
"Hey Gordon, did you know that Susie Q. Pollyanna prefers the color blue to the color green? She just stated it in a private message to Gilberta Sanchez while she was at the Slurp N' Save on LaQueen avenue."
"Woah David! That puts the tally of people who prefer blue over green at 1,233,121 and the people who prefer green over blue at 910,236!"
"Wow Gordon! For our next ad, our product should have more blue in the background and the actor should display our product while wearing a blue shirt!"
"Great idea David! You're so cool!"
Oh shit man. I think those conversations really are happening and that's sad. Can you believe those people get paid huge salaries at those fucking agencies. My lands...my motherfuckin' lands, this is a crazy world we are living in.
In the FAQ published by facebook, they have an entry for the question "Does Facebook sell my information?" and they answer it like this:
"No. You have control over how your information is shared. We do not share your personal information with people or services you don't want. We do not give advertisers access to your personal information. We do not and never will sell any of your information to anyone"
The lead-off NO is a very misleading one. I find the "you don't want" part to be odd. By that statment they are telling you that they share your personal information (so the "no" is a ridiculous lie) but only with "people you want." You know when they ask you before you install an app if you will let the app have access to your information and you accept? That's all it takes for that service to become someone/something "you want." Say you signed up to allow New York Post stories on Facebook with their app, well, the New York Post is now someone "you want" to have your information.
Basically, they don't sell it in a legal sense (in a way that you can sue them), what they do is: they state that any info you share is up to you, then they take a lot of money from 3rd party companies and let them put apps on facebook for you to use, the trade-off for using those apps is to share your info with them (they even straight up tell you that when you install them). They are "sharing" your info with the parties you allow them to.
Oh and why are "advertisers" even mentioned in that FAQ answer? It wasn't asked in the question, kind of odd...isn't it?
How do you think Facebook is a billion dollar corporation? By magic? It doesn't cost anything, sell anything, or make a profit in any possible way. How can it be a billion dollar business? Only by selling (sorry I mean "sharing") your info with other businesses and agencies who want to research their target markets.
Personally, I use Facebook, I think it connects a lot of people and I don't think another network will get off the ground any time soon that will have billions of users (that's a lot). I like to communicate with writing because I write better than I talk. I think I grind my teeth too much when I sleep and my jaw is kind of messed up from that, but with writing you don't have to move your jaw...only your fingers and hands. I can just go on the facebook after work and take a few minutes to socialize, comment on shit and not use my jaw.
I know they got algorithmic robot compilers scanning my stuff and throwing my tastes into some huge Taste-O-Base Database but I don't care. You want to know why? Because I am immune to advertising!
Back when I was an ugly teenager, I was into that buddhism shit. Especially the mantra chanting. A mantra chant is when you repeat the same sentence over and over in your skull ad nauseum until it's engraved and tattooed into your memory. I started with "Namyo Ho Renge Kyo" like Willie Davis and the guy who looks like Lu Da from Suikoden II used to say, and it means that all things that happen have an equal and opposite reaction. Then one day I made a fire in a fireplace and I was listening to a CD called "Repeater" by this band called Fugazi. A song called "Blueprint" came on and I listened to it while I gazed fixated at the flames in the fireplace. The fire made my eyes hot and I put my face really close to the fire and absorbed all the colors and heat with my eyes, and then the chorus of the song went like...
Never mind what they're sellin'
It's what you're buyin'
(...and receivin' undefiled)
Never mind what they're sellin'
It's what you're buyin'
(...and receivin' undefiled)
Never mind what they're sellin'
It's what you're buyin'
(...and receivin' undefiled)
That was a mantra, man. A mantra you listen to while you look at stuff burn, a mantra you say while wood burns away. That mantra is engraved in my skull just as the fire is engraved in my eyes.
That shit is true too! I don't care what anyone tries to sell me! I only worry about what I am buying. It's my action of buying something that's important...not the trickery, gimmicks, and tactics of the people trying to sell me shit! I don't care what tactics the ad agencies devise to try and get me to buy things because I am in control of what I buy, and that's that.
Everything is streamlined now too I think. Like if you buy something on Amazon, that purchase will go in some big ad agency database and next thing you know I'm seeing ads on my facebook or on google adsense for "similar purchases" to the thing I bought on Amazon. I don't care if Gordon and David know that I recently purchased The Dolemite Total Experience off of Amazon. I bought that because I wanted to, Dolemite movies are one of my many bibles and I wanted to have a hard copy of it. You're not going to get me to buy other DVDs you consider similar to that by throwing them in ads on the right hand side of every website I visit.
Anyways, I use the facebook because I don't think the downside outweighs the upside, but I am aware that it's a data farming tool for ad agencies. Your opinion might be different than mine, if you don't want Gordon and David or whoever reading your statuses, looking at your photos, and snooping through your private messages to figure out what ads to throw at you while you browse the internet then you should use another social media service (or if you're really smart and a real go getter...just invent and program a new better one).
Honestly, I think it's kind of sad, I really do. Ad agencies are shelling out billions of dollars to study you, and figure out the best way to trick you into buying some garbage. Me? I don't care if you know I like Dolemite and wear jeans in my photos...you're not gonna get me to buy NOTHING. I don't care what YOU ARE SELLIN'...because it is what I AM BUYIN'....and I buy my Dolemite movies UNDEFILED...you no business, rat-soup eating, dilapidated, born insecure, AD AGENCY MOTHA FUCKAHS!
