Facebook is Big Brother

I am a social media fanatic. I blog (2 different blogs), I tweet, I connect with my friends and family on facebook. But I've begun to notice that facebook is getting really scary, maybe a bit too familiar. The other day one of my friends posted that she was moving to Australia. To anyone familiar with children's literature this was an indication that she was having a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day. But as I was looking at her post, I noticed that the ad column on the right was filled with ads on "relocate to Australia" and "find a home in Australia" and "Finding jobs in Australia" Big Brother was watching, and hoping my friend and I would reach out to their advertisers in Australia.

I also notice that when I am reading a post or comment by a particular friend, most of the "friend suggestions" facebook gives at that time are fiends of that person. I'm not sure why facebook assumes that I want to be friends with EVERYONE who knows someone I went to school with 25 years ago. I mean really, I am glad to be in touch with my friends from Wheaton, but I don't necessarily want to be friends with someone from their church in 2011.

But all these little indicators make me a bit cautious. We are being watched, plain and simple. Now I am not a conspiracy theory type of guy, but if someone knows we are talking about Australia, then someone can find out anything else we talk about. There have been divorce cases where the judge has ordered the couples to turn over their facebook passwords to opposing council. A case in England where facebook and Twitter feeds were used as evidence. I am pretty sure that in larger cities police forces have a dedicated Internet watcher searching for threats of criminal activity.

A friend of mine recently read a book about Hitler and how easy it was for him to round up the people he wanted to get rid of,and that was 70 years ago, long before the computers and technologies of today. Just think how easy now, if someone came to power who wanted to round up all that opposed him. Just a get a record of who "liked" what on facebook. The McCarthy trials would have been so much easier had there been a facebook then. Just see who "liked" the communist party, or who were friends with people who "liked" it.

All I'm trying to say I guess is a word of caution. be careful what you "like" or it may be used against you. please like this post and share with your friends. And a wink goes out to Big Brother "FACEBOOK" We "like" and "Hate" you all at once.