Too Quick to Dismiss Facebook

Mr. Lockwood,

I just got done reading your article from this week on
Facebook. First off I’d like to say it was a very enjoyable read. But I do
“disagree” with some of your opinions on the Facebook fad.

The general idea that Facebook is used as advertising for
money hungry companies and as a tool for the federal government to monitor its
citizens, as well people around the world for that matter is most definitely
dead on. But what can you expect? A bunch of wild folks from the Middle East
crashed a plane into the tallest buildings in just about the most important
city in our country (the most important in my opinion!), if not the world. What else is one to do when they get
hurt other than try to nervously gather information from whatever source they
can (even from their own citizens) in order to find a solution to prevent
horrible catastrophes like 9/11 from occurring again.

I believe that with our growing population today it has
made it harder and harder for people to stay together, communicate, and be
united. And I think you might say “well that is no excuse, we have cell phones,
the email, and the United States Postal Service (among many other things) that
has been keeping people connected for quite some many years now. But the fact
is, Facebook is the most well organized Internet community created yet. Yes,
it’s got a lot of hang-ups: too many advertisements, pointless applications,
and the government obviously monitoring the hell out of it. But it is
lightning-fast communication, and because the creators of Facebook have chosen
to not profit thoroughly from their creation, it probably wont be around for
much longer. And if they do decide to charge their users for it, they will have
no users. Everything should be fair and balanced.

I just believe that it is the way it is, and we should
maybe use wonderful tools of communication while we have them and they are
free, if we want. It’s most definitely a catch 22.

Editor’s
Note: Forbes puts Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth at $1.5 billion
which is entirely derived from his Internet enterprise.

This article appears in Jul 16-22, 2009.

I think CZ Marsh makes astute comments about Facebook. The editor is also correct to note that Facebook’s founder, subject of a new book, “The Accidental Billionaire,” is making a lot of money off it. But CZ is also correct to say that if users are ever charged to use it, it will end its success.