Big Brother is watching...

Dear Mum,

I’ve no doubt that you’ve read about the changes Facebook is making, specifically the introduction of a ‘Facebook Timeline.’  This new style means a person’s profile will not simply display their most recent updates but include ‘highlights’ of their Facebook activity since signing up to the social networking site.

These highlights from a Facebooker’s life will be random statuses about what they had for breakfast or photos of them lying inebriated in a puddle and wearing a traffic cone, as opposed to statuses conveying exam results or proud photos of newborn babies.

I deactivated my Facebook account over winter. I was growing tired of its gossiping nature, its way of coaxing Facebookers into ‘stalking’ the ghosts of their past and it being utilised as a washing line for drying dirty laundry.

Oh it was bliss. No gossip, no bitching, no addictive browsing...

But hearing that Facebook was introducing the inescapable biographical bent to the site, an ominous shadow lurked at the door of my safe haven.

I logged back in and increased all of my security settings in the hope this would police what was published on my profile before The Switch.

This in itself was a mission. The website has become more and more difficult to navigate and I am not confident my action has made any difference to the future privacy of my past actions.

This is not, of course, to say I have anything to hide. There aren’t any photos of me uncouthly licking rude objects or flipping the bird. I would simply prefer past relationships, dull statuses and inconsequential wall pasts verbalised solely in Flight of the Conchords quotes to be locked behind a door labelled ‘For Lucy’s Memory Only.’

I do feel like an element of my basic right to privacy and censorship is being threatened. Take the column on the right of one’s homepage, which shows a handful of friends’ friends that you might have an inkling of. I have no interest in this list and resent being listed on other individuals’ homepages, as if I’m an item on Amazon under the ‘More items to consider’ section.

One could argue you put it up there for public knowledge, you have no right to complain now. But as one did consciously chose to display this information, I think it’s only right they have the right to choose what becomes permanent and what becomes forgotten history.

After all, most of my friends have been on Facebook for some five years and so much has changed in our lives during this period. It does, therefore, seem that the parts being randomly selected by Facebook employees is to become your new identity, defining you for the benefit of new Facebook friends who look into your timeline.

I’ve completely lost interest in the social networking site. I log in once every three or so days and, when I do, for some inexplicable reason, my heart races and I get butterflies. It might be because I don’t trust it, it might be because I fear my Facebook will have undergone The Switch without my consent (which would not be surprising from the website, which constantly undergoes changes).

I can’t deny that Facebook is a brilliant public service. It is a free way to stay in touch with friends and share photos, to pass on birthday wishes and make announcements.

But it seems to be turning into a huge violation of privacy. We all have memories we want to keep private or forget, but the Facebook phenomenon continues to rule our social lives.

This is not a fiction – Big Brother is watching, and his name is Mark Zuckerberg.