What Is The Big Facebook Deal?

In light of the recent hoopla surrounding the Facebook Terms of Service (TOS) I decided to actually read the current TOS. I would have read the new TOS they put in place in the beginning of February, but they have taken them down and replaced them with the old ones. The old one was boring and full of legal jargon, but I was able to understand it just the same. Its really not all that hard...I bet most people simply failed to read them.

They way I see it is this: WE OWN OUR OWN CRAP! Jesus people. Yes, they reserve the right to keep archived copies of stuff, but that is pretty standard, considering how often Internet providers are subpoenaed to provide information about a user, especially after something creepy happens, like the user is accused of hacking people to death using the sharpened edge of an old laptop computer. So really, unless you fall in to that kind of category, you should not worry.

Plus, do you really think the folks at Facebook want 175 trillion photos of birthday parties worldwide? Do you think that they really want to own the stupid haiku about shrimp fried rice that you wrote that night you got really drunk playing beer pong? (And we knew you were hung over the next day because you announced it in your status update…) Does Mark Zuckerberg want to read your “25 Utterly Boring To Everyone But Me Things About Me?” Yeah…no.

Since I joined Facebook (maybe last summer? I just can’t remember when) there have been certain “friends” who repeatedly post status updates about how pissed they are because they don’t like the new look or how they want something else from the site that it is not currently providing them (as if it is Facebook's responsibility to make these people happy). It is these same people who are all up in arms about the new TOS. Okay, people, if it’s that bad an experience for you GET OFF! Really! It’s a social networking site that some smart kid made up and now he’s worth a crapload of money. Don’t like it? LEAVE!

I am so sick and tired of all the “wah wah wah” that we as a nation do on a regular basis. Sometimes it seems like all we do is whine and complain. Its like the whole country is going through either menopause/mid-life crisis or puberty, both of which seem to produce grouchy complainers. Shut up, people. You live in the most amazing country in the whole goddamn world. No, we don’t have socialized medicine, and yes, we have a lot of poverty and hunger and home foreclosures, but c’mon…do you really want to live somewhere else? Why do you think illegal immigration is such a problem here? BECAUSE THE USA IS THE BEST PLACE IN THE WHOLE WORLD TO LIVE, you idiots, and that’s why people risk their lives to come here.

So if all you have to complain about is the Facebook TOS, I say, shut yer damn mouth. Or better yet, get off Facebook and start your own site. Plus, we're tired of your status updates...no one really cares that you are going to bed, or eating a ham sandwich, or suffering from Montezuma's revenge, or glad the day is FINALLY over…




Copyright (c) 2009 Leslie R Becker