My Facebook, My Self
March 16 2009
In a recent interview on the Today Show, Mark Zuckerberg  the young founder of Facebook  observed that the single most distinctive feature of his revolutionary social networking site was its capacity to let users control various degrees of privacy.
I would have listened to more of the interview were it not for my laptop notifying me that I was being invited to chat by someone I went to high school with. For anyone unfamiliar with this practice, Facebook also has a questionable feature displaying everyone who you’ve “friended†who happens to be online while you’re online, which in turn allows them to spontaneously engage you in an online chat. (Even if you’re sitting in your pajamas, watching the Today Show.) Mind you, the sheer fascination of this surprise encounter  this particular guy never uttered a single word to me when I was a teenager  struck me then, as it does now, as remarkably un-private.