Sunday, April 05, 2009

Is social networking Big Brother's catalyst?

I had a thought yesterday. Just one. Do you think social networking was started by the government so they could gain better access to our private lives?

Maybe the Bush administration got fed up with fighting wire taps and simply encouraged the start of Facebook and Twitter. Instead of the government spying on us, we're telling the them what we're doing. It's brilliant.

4 comments:

Mort said...

It's either that, or advertisers... :)

I remember reading a post on one of the Facebook blogs about the statistical analysis they were doing on the status feed posts leading up to the election, and trying to analyze whether posts were in favor of candidates or against candidates. And they were seeing how closely their analysis was tracking with the polls. Interesting stuff, and you could see that there are some smart people behind the scenes at Facebook doing some major number crunching with the things we're voluntarily throwing out there.

Scooter said...

People in no way need the government to create ways to monitor us - we're pefectly capable of doing it ourselves (at least creating the tools and presenting the information, not necessarily harvesting it). We are social creatures by nature and our brains are designed to pick apart and analyze social situations (in part, to identify opportunities for mating).

Mac Noland said...

Mort, you're saying there is value in user behavior? Sounds remotely familiar ;)

Scooter, does your mating reference apply to married people?

Scooter said...

Are you really asking if married people ever hook up via the web?

Yes, it does (apply to married people). She may have married you (or vice versa) because you were the best she could do, and the chance to "breed upward" (my quotes) with someone genetically better while retaining you with your stable job, despite your genetic deficiencies, is still alluring.