Facebook! Farcebook! Fleecebook!

I'm an adult so I don't have a Facebook or Twitter account. I don't believe in them because I believe in privacy. They are just Big Brother on your computer screen. Don't kid yourself, you are under constant surveillance around the clock. One of the aspects of Orwell's “1984” was “Facecrime”, the dangerous condition if your thoughts were deemed suspicious in a public place. Dossiers are being compiled on you right now by some service that is tracking your capacity to buy and spend. Harmless you say, well, read Andrew Keen's book: Digital Vertigo-how today's online social revolution is dividing, diminishing and disorienting us. Facebook has nearly one billion “users” so I am just a lone voice pleading for reason. Well, I'm not totally alone. The late Gore Vidal said, “It's of no consequence what people think of you, the only thing that matters is what you think of them”. I don't often quote Ayn Rand, but in The Fountainhead she has the villain, Ellsworth Toohey ask the hero Howard Roark, “What do you really think of me?” and Roark replys, “I don't think of you at all.” So we now have this mighty company that began trading in May at $100 billion valuation. It's now about $60 billion and heading south daily. Of course the underwriters and Mr. Zuckerberg have banked their proceeds and the public is left holding the bag. I'm not sure you can sell “liking”. It's an unreal product and not very essential to everyday life. And advertising doesn't fit comfortably into the popular mobile format, probably why GM and other advertisers are dropping out. Only time will tell but it's good to remember Prohibition's speakeasy queen, Texas Guinan who traditionally greeted patrons with a hearty “Hello suckers”. Hello Zuckers!