Facebook

I have a confession to make. I like Facebook.
Well, I think I like the marketed idea behind Facebook. You know the one: The nice utopian idea of bringing people together in an online community.
The thing is, in order for people to come together, to share photos, update statuses, play games, and what ever else. Data is collected.
And that data, that’s worth something, which seems to be something that we took for granted.
Maybe we all thought our data was so general that it would have no real world impact?

Perhaps we didn’t care enough to read the fine print?
Perhaps it’s not just the data harvesting for the Donald Trump campaign?
It could also be that it was done through the use of an innocent looking quiz?
Maybe it’s that Facebook tried to sue to stop the story from getting out?
But now could be a good time to re-evaluate, and learn about our relationship with social networks? It’s not just the data we willingly give, but with the revelation that Facebook has been keeping track of calls and text messages from our phones, it’s also clear we need to seriously think about the phone apps we install.

Why I’m I going on about Facebook here? Two things; Parenting blogs seem to discuss social networks and smart phones on a regular basis. These conversations normally focus on the amount of time spent on electronic devices / social media, and if that time is healthy and safe? Should we also be discussing the information we willingly give up to large companies such as Facebook?

Secondly, parenting bloggers in general also seem to include a lot of time on Facebook, and Instagram. Perhaps this is a reminder for us all to check what we put on social networks about our families and ourselves?

I like Facebook.

But right now. I don’t trust Facebook.