While I recognize a lot of reasons to critique facebook, I take issue with some of these claims, for example that Facebook "mediates relationships that already exist." Some of my relationships that are mediated through Facebook would barely exist or would not exist at all without it. And Hodgkinson himself sems to imply it creates relationships when he says Theil is trying to create communities without borders. In fact I have experienced this happening and while the ads now reaching all of us are tiresome, I barely notice them most of the time. I'm not running out for a coke just because a few lines about it appears in my news feed. I'm not going to go through every point with which I disagree, but I feel impelled to also note that the closing paragraph was yet another delightful example of the argument that we should all unplug and read or talk, or (as suggested early on) we are all pathetic losers drinking alone in front of the screen. And I love the assumption that many of us don't read, write and talk aloud with friends as well, and/or we have unlimited time and money for trips and long distance calls. I don't think anyone claims the Facebook TOS or Privacy Policy are good, and yes, the data retention issue is a real concern, but these real issues are couched in such inflammatory terms, which Facebook fans will stop to really think about them? (you know, apart from us? ;-) ) Best, Kim On Feb 19, 2008 6:00 PM, nativebuddha <nativebuddha@gmail.com> wrote:
some dirt on the facebook: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/14/facebook
-robert _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/