Facebook Overload, pt. 2

Some of y’all really have too much time on your hands… I think Facebook is a lot of fun, great way to connect with old friends, co-workers, classmates and create new social relationships with people, but these applications are really out of hand. When I was having brunch with Brian and Steven we were talking about it and about how you sometimes can’t keep people from adding and following you online.

I don’t mind it, I mean my blog is public if not publicized and I recognize Facebook as a lesser version of LinkedIn, so I have co-workers in my contacts list. But you have to think about just how much you want people to know about you. Facebook offers limited profiles, thankfully, but some of the applications I’ve been invited to are not the sort of thing you want anyone loosely professionally-related to you seeing. The obvious argument is that I can hide that information from them and that’s true. However my biggest beef with all of these applications is that clearly they’re very easy to create, however the interstitial pages after you click on the invite don’t go to the application’s homepage where you can read about what it is you’re about to click, but instead they just say “You must add this application to see what it is. No add’y, no look’y.” Not in those exact words, of course, but same sentiment. If someone ever comes up with a good way to hack Facebook and access your personal information, their best bet is to wrap that hack into an application wherein people have pseudo-flirts, they’ll click on it without even thinking twice.

In the same vein of knowing what’s in your social networking hand, I signed up for Spokeo. I won’t explain it too much, their taglines are “Find your friends. Track your friends.” It’s not bad for you, but just sign up on your own and see it for yourself. Much like Google’ing people, it’s a bit eye-opening to see just how much out there is public and can be found just using your e-mail address.

And to go out on a laugh, two web comics have recently had some good strips, both MMO-related.

Ctrl+Alt+Del

• Entranced: “You need to chill out on this game or you’re not going to see these again for a long time”
• Slightly Rewired: “It’s a level 80 female-only persuasion spell”

Penny Arcade

• The Ungift, Part One: “You got me a job for Christmas!”
• The Ungift, Part Two: “I’ll just log in, and print… THIS?”

Ok, time to do some actual work… I guess.