Facebook and its opposite

Sitting in the Oakland Airport waiting for my plane I suddenly became queerly sympathetic to all the people who were waiting with me, each person talking on a cell phone except me. I usually loathe hearing other's conversations but I thought it was sweet in Oakland that all these people waiting for a plane in which they'd soon be putting their lives in the hands of others, were all using their phones, all talking to somebody. There was something so touching about the scene, sad and kind of hopeful at the same time, therefore very human. I saw them as children standing at the window of their parents homes' on a warm summer day, looking to see if any of their friends were out there to play.

I was on my way to see Drew and his family in Portland. He's 33 and has never been on Facebook. He'd said to me once that "someday soon, privacy will be the new treasure." I wanted to find out more, so he told me:

I was initially introduced by Ash's sister (Ash is Ashley, Drew's wife) Katy. She was at Vanderbilt, ca. 2005 or 2006 and Facebook grew out Eastern college campuses. I though it was a juvenile fad at a time in my life when I wanted to grow up. Within a year or so I'd seen some pages and decided it was way more info that I'd ever want to give out freely. Also I noticed that those who seemed to spend a lot of time on it tended to be social retards from high school, not people I necessarily wanted to interact with in a strange new medium.

Later, Ash got on to share pictures of Grace (Drew & Ash's daughter) with friends from college, and she was always noting that the wrong people were responding, not the people she'd hoped to hear from. That gave me a sense that it's a medium designed more for the voyeur.

 (An aside) Not long after Ash got on, an alt blog I read posted some pretty convincing evidence that Facebook was essentially a cover for CIA/NSA information gathering, and was likely put at the head of the pack of the highly competitive social media market in part due to its covert governmental actions. (End of aside.)

Ultimately, I just don't see anything genuinely good that can come from participating in something so superficial. An old school phone book with all our cell phone numbers and email addresses in it would at least favor the bold people I tend to appreciate in life...hey, you really want to be in touch? CALL ME! I'm confident in saying I don't have a single "friend," former or current, who isn't capable of picking up a phone to call or of sending me an email.

I asked Drew to comment on the statement he'd made 6 or 7 years ago about "privacy" and Facebook.

I think I said it would all cycle back someday, that these trends are cyclical and that while public sharing is in vogue today, in a few years the opposite will be popular and respected. So if you're skeptical of the medium to begin with, just wait a while and it too will pass.