Creeper.

Let me start this post by saying two things.
1. I am not a stalker, creeper or peeping Tom.
2. I really do love Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare.


When Facebook first started it was exclusive. Exclusivity was one of the reasons its popularity grew so rapidly. Facebook started with expanding to different colleges and eventually removed the registration requirement of having a “.edu” e-mail addresses, and the exclusive angle slowly wore off.

Facebook’s market has expanded from college students in the United Sates, to anyone with internet access in the entire world. Seven year old children have pages, celebrities and journalists have pages even my grandmother has a page.

If exclusivity is not drawing people in to social media than what is? Why are people signing up for sites like Facebook in masses?

There are now games to play, a constant status feed to look at and pictures galore. Facebook has redesigned itself several times. The most prominent reasons are differing expectations from potential members and privacy concerns.

You now have countless privacy options ranging from being completely open to completely hidden. All those privacy settings fly out the window with “opt-in” options on some websites. You can log in with your Facebook name and password, and the company has access to all of your information.

If that is not creepy enough, Facebook is launching a new option where you can click through your friends and check who you have a crush on. If they are single, you will get an email stating that they are available, and if they are in a relationship, an e-mail will notify you if things go downhill.

Facebook saw how successful Foursquare had become and wanted a piece of the action. It now has a plug-in called “Facebook Places.” You can check in wherever you are; in your house, in your car, at school, at work etc. and it will show up as your status.
Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and even Linked In are all intertwined. If you post something on your Foursquare or Facebook account, it can show up on your other social media pages (depending on your settings).

I don’t know about you, but I think this is a little “Big Brother.” I don’t think we need to make it any easier for your creepy neighbor or robbers to come in and steal or kidnap you. I know that you can change your settings to private and only your friends can see your information, but come on now, how many of you really know all of your Facebook friends personally.

Twitter is even worse, because if you tweet where you check in on Four Square, anyone who chooses to follow you will see where you are.

From the marketing side, Four Square and Facebook Places are both great tools, I get to see who has visited my business and how many times along with what tips they have for other customers. As a consumer, Facebook relationship updates and tracking where I go still feels like I am giving up to much of my personal information to whoever decides to listen at that point and time.