With the issue of personal privacy and the internet in the limelight lately, people are beginning to reassess their involvement with social media.
Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts all give personal online presence, but at what cost? While these social media outlets promise privacy, do they really provide? Examine Facebook, the unquestioned social media leader of today; Mark Zuckerburg (founder and CEO of Facebook) himself has confirmed that Facebook is moving more and more toward more lax privacy settings in line with the Facebook corporate vision of a more open virtual world.
Yet this 'open world' has consequences - not only regarding interpersonal private, but also from corporations seeking personal information to tailor advertising to individuals.
With this in mind, do the advantages of Facebook outweigh the disadvantages? Pros: Facebook allows you to stay in touch with friends and family who you might otherwise be disconnected from.
Facebook is the "in" form of communication; cutting yourself off from Facebook might keep you 'out of the loop' with regards to events coordinated online and friends who will be communicating with one another on Facebook regardless of whether or not you decide to stick with the social media giant.
Keep up to date with your interests (TV shows, bands, authors etc) who provide updates on Facebook.
Business opportunities - creating a page on Facebook can be extremely useful in promoting a business if utilized properly.
If a business page can hook a sizable number of fans, events can be sent out to all followers at once, integrating corporate events into the personal events of users.
Convenient storage location for pictures/videos you wish to share with friends and loved ones.
Cons: Privacy settings are very lax by default.
Facebook's claims of simplicity in privacy settings have been greatly exaggerated.
Lack of control over what others post.
One can be included in the status updates of others and tagged in pictures uploaded by other people without even being a Facebook user.
Being a Facebook user only compounds the issue by centralizing all the posts people have made about you on a single page, making everything ever posted about you/by you easy to find and browse through.
Advertising.
Facebook is a free service, and will likely remain a free service as long as it remains supported by advertisers.
However, the issue here is not that advertising appears on Facebook, it's that Facebook provides advertisers with personal information about you in order for them to better target ads to you--personal information like your browsing habits and interests you might not want others to know about.
Reconnect with others - even the people you might have preferred stayed out of your life.
Annoyances.
Already Facebook 'viruses' based on scripts exist that can clog up the feeds of both you and your friends, not to mention exploit vulnerabilities in browsers that can give your computer itself viruses.
With these in mind, remember that the choice is up to you, the consumer, whether or not to use Facebook.
For all its wealth and corporate power, Facebook is ultimately powerless without users--a fact that should give you at least some small sense of empowerment.