Facebook. Argh.

Okay, so most of the time I try to write about pressing school, state, national, or international issues. These articles are usually full of facts, logic, and immaculate arguments, and I hope that you read them so that you can hear one side of an argument and think deeply about what you believe on the subject and formulate your own opinion.

However, every once in a while I just have to get something that has been bugging me off my chest, and the editorials that spawn from that are usually a little bit more sparse when it comes to the fact and logic areas. Fortunately for you, the reader, this means that you get to be mildly entertained by my rants on what should be matters of little importance. So, without further adieu, here I go (tune in next week for more persuasive and relevant commentary):

Is anyone else sick of all this drama on Facebook? Good grief, it's like being in high school all over again: people hooking up, breaking up, bragging about how awesome they are, complaining about how awful their life is, joining cliques, abusing instant messages as a viable method of communication, and competing for who has the best social life as a function of the sheer volume of people willing to click a button that admits they know you.

My personal favorite, though, has just cropped up recently: the concept of Facebook privacy. They just added that "news feed" thing a week ago and it created such a spike in whining and group-forming that it would make an emo club jealous.

Everyone was so concerned about how close to "stalking" the news feed was. Well, I've got news for you: if you don't want to be stalked, why are you posting yourself on the Internet to begin with? If the right minds decided to stalk you, it wouldn't matter how many encryptions you used; they could still stalk you. The news feed just makes it possible for less talented and lazier stalkers to stalk you. If you don't want certain people to see your contact information or your huge list of favorite bands, you shouldn't have posted it in the public domain.

Then this week, Facebook announced that you will no longer have to be a college or high school student to be a member, and again, the e-outrage was e-normous.

"Oh no! You mean adults and prospective employers will be able to see my profile?" Guess what, buddy? They already can! It's not that hard! Haven't you ever seen Hackers? They hacked the Gibson, man!

I just read in Tech. Comm. the other day that over 20% of companies screen prospective job candidates' internet profiles currently. What this says to me is, if you want to see something on Facebook, you can. There will always be sleazebags out there who will do anything to please the man — even something as atrocious as using your precious Facebook friendship you started while drunk at a party to let a hiring manager see what you do on the weekends.

The long and short of it is, when you put something on the Internet, there is no way to guarantee that others won’t see it, especially with these social networking sites that are designed to share your personal information with others. If you don’t want certain people knowing things about you, then you should choose a better medium than the Internet to express yourself. Don’t let yourself be fooled into believing anything different.