Call me a naive young one, but I like what Facebook is doing! As mentioned a day prior to F8 (totally coincidence, I didn’t even know about it) I wrote about how I want my whole online experience personalized. I wasn’t kidding. Facebook’s new open graph and like-button-spreading is just simplifying what I was doing already. I was already trying to find my friends on yelp, just that I had to actually search for them - takes way too long. Now it does the connection for me. The next step is to know what I like to eat and what my favorite food is and to hence make better recommendations on where to go tonight.I want the web to know me and cater to me like a concierge in a fancy hotel, who already knows that I want sparkling water not still water and like to sleep in white sheets, not … you get it (I don’t actually stay in fancy hotels, just like the metaphor). I want a much better experience because Pandora knows what kind of music I like, so they don’t only give me tracks that match the one I named, but in general tracks that I like. Everywhere. Take down the silos between websites, this is a WEB.

You and your privacy concerns

I get it, I grew up in the country with the strictest data protection laws on this planet. But you know what? That’s fine. Not everyone wants to put themselves out there, and that’s what those neat boxes are for that you can check or uncheck. Granted, FB is doing a lousy, lousy job telling you that there’s new boxes you might want to uncheck. Go right now and look at your Privacy Settings > What your friends can share about you > And keep me from posting your relationship status on some random website. Apart from that I’m happy with the options FB provides me, and I’m sure services will arise that give you anonymity when surfing.

Being myself online just as I am offline

I like to be myself online. In fact, whatever I do online (like writing this), I can reflect on for a minute longer. I might in fact be able to create the persona I want to be perceived as online. And yes, I have different roles in my life - that’s why there’s lists and groups. In fact, the personalization that Facebook enables makes it even easier to be unique and not to conform with everyone (e.g. read boring headlines first before getting to the ones that you really care about, just because the majority needs to know the boring stuff). It makes me have a richer time online.

Facebook’s Power. Is Facebook evil?

Facebook has immense power over me. If they were to take Facebook away from me now, I’d pay a lot to keep it. Keep not “it” but my friends all over the world, their contact info, shared memories, jokes, the persona I created by carefully by untagging me in every picture I didn’t like ;) The fact that Facebook might become the aggregator of all my personal info (to personalize the web for me) almost suggests itself (well, maybe in cooperation with Hunch). Facebook is powerful, but as long as they keep those boxes that I can uncheck if I so choose, I’m not afraid. This whole discussion reminds me of Gary Vaynerchuk’s reminder that people are inherently good. Facebook is a company with people in it, and enough of us are watching. The only thing that scares me a little though is that Facebook is creating immense value for me. In 2-3 use, the fact that I’m getting only personalized info online might save me a few hours everyday. If they start asking for just some of that value, I’ll be owing them a lot of money ;)

What do you think? Do you “like” the changes? Hate them?

1. howardtharp liked this
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4. yvynyl answered: I think people who are afraid of ‘losing Facebook’ need a reality check that life is lived in the flesh. haha
5. caterpillarcowboy reblogged this from masscustomization and added:

   personally disagree,...agree with Carmen?

6. masscustomization posted this