So, I'm not sure if this conversation is blog-worthy, but I just read on Mashable that Facebook is enabling a new Life Event feature that allows you to publish information on your upcoming pregnancy. I find this abominable. Why? It's not because I hate babies. I guess it may come from the fact that I'm a part of the old guard--we used Facebook to update our networks on our thoughts and activities. Sure our Facebook profile was about our identity, but it was an identity that was comprised of our interests, our relationship statuses and our day-to-day reflections. Both the lifeline transformation as well as this new feature make me feel like Facebook is trying to follow the continuum of my life. Measuring my progress through the various stages like the game of Life. And there is something flawed and fake about it. They are creating categories for everthing so that it can be packaged and sold as information to some marketer. But just like our interests overlap and combine to exhibit a complex life experience, so do our life events. What's next? A category for us when we get sick? What about a special box for when we go through divorces?
It also seems to me, and maybe its just b/c of the IPO, but it does seem to me that there is more of an emphasis on gathering information for the purposes of advertizement targeting. This new feature makes me want to post fake ultrasound photos, just so they sell it to some schmo. I'd do it, except I don't want diaper ads anymore than I wan't "meet local singles" ads. Plus, I'd freak out my parents.
http://mashable.com/2012/08/13/facebook-expecting/
It also seems to me, and maybe its just b/c of the IPO, but it does seem to me that there is more of an emphasis on gathering information for the purposes of advertizement targeting. This new feature makes me want to post fake ultrasound photos, just so they sell it to some schmo. I'd do it, except I don't want diaper ads anymore than I wan't "meet local singles" ads. Plus, I'd freak out my parents.
http://mashable.com/2012/08/13/facebook-expecting/
3 comments:
I was pretty apalled when I saw this, as well, Monique. I was just trying to think of a creative title for a post when I came across yours - I think we're on the same page here.
Life Events to me are very personal. I want to be able to control who I share and celebrate them with. I realize it is my choice to share or not and hey, at least I have that option - for now anyway!
I am sick of feeling the pressure to announce every detail of my life on Facebook - aka publically - because we all know how often privacy settings get updated and how clearly outlined those updates are...
I'm really surprised to see such a negative reaction to initiatives like this on Facebook. People post reports on myriad events and interests that occur in their daily lives, so why would posting a pic of an event like an ultrasound be less acceptable than posting a pic of what you had for breakfast or checking in on the train platform you arrived on that day? Segmentation of groups based on interest isn't something new on Facebook (there are a bunch of Facebook groups for pregnant women, for example) and maybe your negative reaction and the existence of these specialized groups points to a need to create a user-controlled filtering system for status updates. A user, for example, could create a post at a general level that can be seen by everyone he or she is friends with, but create another post that is intended for family and close friends.
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