Shooting at Bubbles

There is no denying the fact that Facebook has changed the Web and while it remains to be seen if this is a change for the better that isn’t stopping a large number of people in the tech industry and blogosphere from being concerned about the change. Personally the changes that Facebook is bringing about only further my own deep concerns about the company and its motives.

The problem is that we, both users and content producers, are facing a big dilemma. We are being forced to make a decision. Either we are on the side of the Facebook Web or we are on the side of the Other Web and I got to say before anything else this is incredibly unfair.

For the user the decision is really simple. If you don’t care about what Facebook is doing then you can carry on with your FarmVille playing and Liking of stuff where ever the Facebook Like button shows up. Those however who don’t agree with what Facebook is doing the decision is a lot harder.

Do you continue on using the service with the hope that there will be enough pressure put on Facebook to make them change or do you decide that it is time to walk away from the service, either permanently or temporarily. Either way the user’s trust has been abused and having to make this decision only adds insult onto that abuse.

For content producers they not only have the same decisions to make as the users but they also have to whole new problem of do they buy into what Facebook is doing by adding Facebook’s social plugins to their sites. Sure it’s easy to say that if you disagree and walk away from Facebook it is a no-brainer when it comes to deciding about the plugins – you don’t install them.

Except it isn’t that easy folks. Yes it is for me to say as the cranky old fart surfing round the web that I vehemently disagree with what Facebook is doing and promise never to go back to my Facebook page, except maybe to deactivate my account, until they change their ways. However I am also a content producer, or at least I like to think so, which means I want my stuff to get read, listened to, or viewed by as many people as possible.

Any content producer that says that they don’t want the same thing is a liar. Sorry but you are and you are fooling no-one but yourself if you keep telling everyone that you don’t care if no-one reads your stuff.

As well as getting as many readers as possible there is also for a very large percentage of content producers a financial incentive to get as many readers as possible. In this regard the promise held out by Facebook is huge and that is very hard to turn away from and the bastards know it.

Already we have seen the snide remarks made against bloggers who might have negative things to say about what Facebook is saying and yet have installed the plugins. We have already seen the heated discussions over one company’s employees leaving Facebook with all kinds of snide remarks being made.

I know that as a content producer I am having to make many of these decisions. Do I include the plugins here and get irritated because people with their better than thou attitude get their jollies pointing this out to the world while pointing out my negative feelings about Facebook at the same time. Do I include them on WinExtra, my other blog about Windows and Microsoft, where they would make sense to go.

Even worse than that though, is the fact I have to worry that if I do install those plugins and hop on that part of the Facebook train will my future writing about all this be affected?

The truth is that we, and I mean both users and content producers, shouldn’t have been put in this position in the first place and even more important we didn’t need to be.

Thanks for nothing Facebook. Thanks for nothing.