By: Billy BeerSlugger
It always amuses me to see the shock and amazement when I tell someone that I’m not on Facebook. Then I give them the reasoning that the first thing Skynet does when it becomes self aware is to grab all the Facebook data as an easy means to find and kill you. Not everyone gets the Terminator reference but the ones that do suddenly have a troubled look on their face.
Maybe the Skynet scenario is a little extreme but don’t think that the government isn’t tapping into this info to form a better bio of tens if not hundreds of millions of U.S. Facebook users. Couple that Facebook info with data that Google collects including entire search histories and geo-location data, enabling whomever has access to the data to potentially find out information about you that your mom or best friend doesn’t even know.
Besides a personal want to live off the grid as much as possible (for fear of Skynet/Big Brother) , I just don’t see the allure of Facebook beyond its initial novelty, reconnecting with people. I personally don’t want to talk to anyone from High School past the people I already do. I either have a phone number or email address of most of my friends and acquaintances in college. I’m on at least two personal email chains that get daily attention from multiple people. I rock Google Chat from Gmail and my phone. That’s all I can really handle on a day to day basis. I don’t need to know that Jimmy A. is going to the gym or that Jenny B. is now in a relationship. I really just don’t care enough to read about my friends let alone people I barely know. I also don’t care enough to post my own info for people to look at.
There’s also something inherently contrarian about me, if everyone is on Facebook, I’m anti-facebook. If the general American public loves American Idol, Lebron James, and The Black Eyed Peas then I am almost automatically against those things. This likely stems from the thought pattern that likens most of the general public to sheep being herded and prodded in directions which best benefits the powers that be.
The last reason I will give that I’m not on Facebook is that my Mom is on Facebook. Yes the same woman who can barely retrieve voicemails off of her mobile phone is a blossoming member of the social media club that 500 million other people are on. I don’t need her looking at pictures of how wasted I got last weekend or trivializing over what my last post meant. I also don’t need her leaving me notes like the ones she used to pack in my lunches during grade school. Wouldn’t jibe with my uber cool BeerSlugger persona.