Facebook must increase, privacy must decrease

Think on the bright side: once Facebook has acquired a faithfully-updated account for every person on the planet, we will finally have an indisputable answer to the "six degrees of separation" question. For those of you who feel this is a cheap consolation prize when compared to the potential dangers of the ginormous social network, too bad. Facebook is here to stay. According to the following CNN article, Facebook is not only huge, it's now making money. As long as Facebook is profitable, it will survive, while making every attempt to increase its popularity.  Now would be a good time for any interested in personal privacy to make some serious decisions about what is appropriate for them to post in such an unprotected environment.

To Be Truly Tech Savvy

I feel some irony in producing this blog entry. My goal is to comment on our world of evolving technology, particularly on some of the dangers and challenges inherent to technological growth, and to do so I am in fact using that technology. I feel like the parent who obtains a World of Warcraft account that he might lecture his son in-game about its dangers. However, my goal is not to convince you that technology is bad, for I do not believe that myself, but to help raise in you an awareness that may not have previously existed. In so doing I champion the same cause that Neil Postman took up in his article, "Five Things We Need to Know About Technological Change." Simply put, it is an error to suppose that all man has or will create is a universal good, brought down from the peaks of Mount Olympus to improve the quality and substance of life. Far from this naive view is the reality that every invention comes with a cost, and it should only be with prudence and good judgment that any new creation of man be unleashed on the world. Now let me personalize this message. Because I cannot control "the world", I will protect "my world" by only incorporating new technologies that I can see have a greater perceived benefit than cost in my personal life, and I suggest you do the same.