Facebook is Nothing but an Update of Personal Websites

There has been so much stuff in the news about Facebook being intrusive and putting your life up for the world to see, but the fact of the matter is, it's nothing but an update to the personal website that computer nerds would put up about themselves during the nineties and the early part of this decade.

When I was in grade nine, I had my own free website, chock full of ads, on homestead with my favourite shows listed, my favourite music, etc.

My e-mail, a little thing about myself and the occasional update were fully visible to anyone who would have had a passing interest in me. Nobody really noticed nor cared and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing!

I didn't have a digital camera nor a scanner at the time (I was a disadvantaged geek), so there were no pictures and I ended up using photographs that I could yank off the internet to make my photo albums, mainly about the places I would like to go.

The passion for my site died eventually and I went website-less. I don't think that the site exists anymore and I haven't bothered searching for it since I can't even remember what my e-mail was nor what the name of the website was.

Facebook is nothing more than my little website that I butchered with HTML back in grade nine, except that it has the extra perks of posting photos, keeping in touch with friends, uploading videos, having apps, and other things, something that I was never able to do with my little corner of the net.

Quite frankly, this is an evolved form for me and everyone saying that it's dangerous and that sort of stuff just doesn't fly. Facebook is only dangerous if you make it out to be dangerous. By adding total strangers to see your profile could be the worst thing you ever do.

As well, keeping your security settings to only have your friends see pictures or other things is a step closer to keeping yourself safe, but many of us aren't tech-savvy and are afraid to play with the profile settings.

I admit that Facebook had the thrill of being on the internet and meeting new people, but ever since it went from a university student-only initiative to a worldwide network and one of the most visited websites on the internet, I have had a policy of adding people I met in person or people whom I work with. Those friends that I added for the hell of it when I first got Facebook to pad my friend numbers are getting the boot from my friends list, and I don't think any of them would shed a tear.

Even then, I'm risking it a bit, but I'm no longer accepting the friend request from the guy in Australia who is also a fan of Kimi Raikkonen or the guy in Pakistan who said that "because you've been to the Monaco Grand Prix, you're my friend," both of which were real events that happened in the last two years.

To close off this post, Facebook is only safe as long as you take the necessary precautions, keep your privacy settings on high and only add friends who are friends, not people whom you share a vested interest like Formula One or attending a Grand Prix.