Doctorow’s prediction of how Facebook will die is interesting in that it is believable and I can see it happening. People do and will go out of their way to avoid other people who annoy you, make you uncomfortable or just creep the hell out of you. But on the other hand, there’s a chance that Facebook won’t end up like Friendster and others at all. Even though there are people on Facebook that you would rather avoid but you still remain friends with them in title only. Any communication between you and that person will be short and exaggerated, much like the language of Facebook as Roiphe discussed. The relationship between this person and yourself will never develop any farther than this exaggerated form of short exchanges every now and then, usually initiated by the other. It’s not desirable, but it is tolerable.
In the midst of this tolerance, we try to forget that this person we would rather avoid can actually view everything we do on Facebook and for a lot of people that includes everything they do in their lives. Manjoo argues that Facebook should have much better privacy control, so that these particular kinds of people, the ones who really make you uncomfortable and you want to pretend don’t exist, can’t see your everyday routine and update about everything that happens to you. This makes it so easy for them to stalk you because you’re unintentionally providing them with your whereabouts and activities. To prevent this, Facebook should improve privacy settings and then stick by them instead of changing them 4-6 months later. Perhaps Manjoo’s privacy control dial would work or maybe it wouldn’t but Facebook needs to do something to improve its privacy control. If Facebook does this, it will have a much better chance of surviving and not ending up like Friendster.
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