Facebook

There are useful technologies and then there are useless technologies. However most things we do in this life fall somewhere between the two ends of the spectrum. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter belong in that category.

For ease of writing I will simply say something like "Facebook" when I really mean all of that social networking ilk.

Facebook can be a useful technique for connecting people together and helping maintain friendly relationships despite the distance between us and the many changes in our lives. It can also be very useful for law enforcement and for networking when trying to find employment.

Like most good things, Facebook is misused. I do not have an account with any of the social networking sites and do not plan to get an account. I want to express my reasoning for swimming upstream on this issue.

• I have seen through accounts belonging to other people that many "friends" use these sites for playing games and then blast you with all of their cyber achievements. To all of those, here is my cyber head shaking. That said, I have things that suck my time just as much. Those things just aren't usually filling the inboxes of everyone single person I have ever known in this lifetime. Simply put: Dont ask me to be your friend unless you are willing to treat me like one and not spam me.
• I do not have the time to be adding friends, checking my status, reading peoples diatribes and constant opinions. 
• I like to do things my way. I never fit the "mainstream" mold and probably never will. As an example, I was proudly "cell phone illiterate" until last year. A friend of mine, also proudly "cell phone illiterate", states he will not get a cell phone "until they come out as prices in gumball machines". If you know what a gumball machine is, you probably dont have a facebook account. Back to the topic at hand, I also did not get a DVD player until most movies stopped being available on VHS. You have to give me some credit. at least I had VHS and not a beta max. 
• Can 20 million people be wrong? ... I just made that number up, I honestly dont know nor care how many people have accounts with some website. Yes they can all be wrong; I am not a "sheeple".
• The last reason and most important reason why I will not sign up for a Facebook account is data mining. Who owns Facebook? If I want some information to be public, like this, then I will make it public. I do not want to have a "private" account that is used to sell ads. I am more and more leary of companies giving things for free only to use my information. So I simply do not give them permission to mine for my information unless I make it freely available.