I’ve been trying to put a finger on my perpetual gravitation towards Facebook. It’s starting to feel a bit like a “bug drawn to light” route – and my intent is not to continue bullying this particular tool. But I think I’ve finally figured it out. Facebook provides context for a multitude of issues that’s far greater than Facebook itself and therefore enables conversations about privacy, digital literacy and responsibility with folks who may not have a connection point otherwise.

For example I have been able to tackle discussions regarding online issues with my family, friends and/or classmates (who have varying levels of technical knowledge, awareness and interest – or lack thereof), but do have an understanding of the basic concepts and controversies surrounding Facebook. Thus the perfect bridge is constructed for venturing into the larger conversation, and that conversation takes on a shape of its own based on the individual with whom I am engaging.

Part of what sparked such a self discovery was Doc Searls post entitled, Making Rules, II, it’s an entertaining and meticulously presented post that I encourage you to read.

That’s why yelling doesn’t work. What we need instead is to make tools that work for us, and not just for them. We need to invent tools that give each of us independence from vendor control, and better ways of telling vendors what we want, when we want it, and how we want to relate — on our terms and not just on theirs. As Neo said to the Architect, “The problem is choice”. That problem will be with us as long as that axe is in our heads.

Doc’s post fostered me to grasp what’s truly at play in regards to consumerism, the web and the rights we endlessly seem to surrender – and with that openned my mind to the greater contextual connections at play. So thank you!

Courtesy of the Digital Natives blog:

Building Walls in Facebook

There are, of course, still millions of college students who post anything and everything to their profile, with no qualms about who sees it. Call it negligence, call it expression, it doesn’t matter. What does matter, and what interests me, is the growing group of students who have taken control of their digital identity by using granular security settings; ones that allow you to control who sees what, on a per-person and per-item basis. Potential employers have been prowling Facebook for at least a couple years, so why the change now? It’s simple: they’re out of the shadows.

Do You Trust Your Facebook Friends?

As any Digital Native can tell you, the term “Facebook friend” has a meaning distinct from simply “friend,” and where you may care about the purchases of a real friend, it’s not the same with a Facebook friend. The second piece is about privacy, from both a legal perspective and in principle. Is there something uneasy about how Social Ads puts your face and name to advertise a product, even one you legitimately bought or proclaimed to be a fan of?

More about the Digital Natives Project:

The Digital Natives project is a collaboration between the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School and the Research Center for Information Law at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. Digital natives, a term made popular by Marc Prensky, are young people whose use of technology is completely ingrained in their lives -they have grown up always-on and constantly-connected. Unlike those even a little bit older, these Digital Natives didn’t have to learn to “be digital,” they learned in digital the first time around.