Give your face some privacy

It's been a long few months, students of mine, but it's good to see your smiling faces!

Today's order of business is this discussion and boycott against popular social networking site: Facebook.

These are the things to consider when decided whether or not to forgo facebook for all eternity are the following:

           - if you are concerned about your privacy, you shouldn't be social networking in the first place. Unless you are giving away credit card information, social security numbers, or anything of that nature - there is nothing you can't tell people that, if they really wanted to know, they couldn't find anyways through phone books, directories, your friends, public information, etc... I use to believe that my house would be broken into, a family member murdered (if not myself), or something bad along those lines would happen if I so much as tell someone my real age online, let alone an e-mail address or phone number. Heaven forbid an address. If you want these things to be private, don't social network. It's important to understand that social networking involves talking to people, and sharing information with them, especially if you are doing it right (and getting job offers).

           - privacy is the main concern for most people considering giving up facebook, which is silly since you give just as much information (while not as directly) away through myspace, twitter, linkedin, etc. However, another issue people have with Facebook is the bugs/errors. So the chat doesn't work every now-and-then, and pages sometimes don't want to load, but if you are letting these things distract you from the benefits of Facebook and social networking, then you're doing it wrong.

            - Giving up Facebook, if you are a part of that community and not just updating your status every now-and-then, will essentially hurt your social life as it stands now. Because I don't know you very well, let me explain what losing Facebook would do to me currently: I would lose friends. I have friends that are graduating college and moving away, and in only a year or two I will be doing the same. Keeping in touch with these people is important to me, and Facebook and social mediums are the easiest and most efficient way to do that. Cell phones only go so far with conversation, especially when you have 50 good friends that you want to keep tabs on. Another thing, I've gained opportunities through Facebook that I wouldn't have known about otherwise. I was an extra in an Indie movie, I've learned about sites/movements like couch surfing, I've become a part of communities involved with my interests - like Doctor Who and Steam Punk, I've organized parties, and the list goes on.

If it's not obvious by now, my stance on this issue is that I will NOT be deleting my Facebook account, and I've yet to fully understand why any self-respecting social-network-user would.

That's all for now, class. What is your opinion on the issue?