Overinflated Claim: Now Is The Beginning of Widespread Hyper-LinkedInterconnected Traceable History…P.S. Thanks F.B.!

Facebook, for all our praise, fears, neurosis, and hookups that we can attribute to it, continues to be a compelling intersection of culture, identity, technology, and history.  On my mind today is one of the latest features that Facebook unloaded:  A history of your account activity.  I found out about it when listening on the radio and the crux of the discussion was “fear Facebook, they now allow you access to your entire history.”  Nothing like old media trying to scare us from new media; next they’ll be telling us it’s bad for our eyes and will lead to juvenile delinquency…ooops, they already do.  


Upon hearing about this new feature, I went to Facebook and checked it out.  Under account settings, there is now an option “Download your information.”  Clicking through allows to make the choice to keep your history and download it.  I went forward and selected to download it.  However, since it can take some time to accumulate, you don’t download it from Facebook, but through a link sent to your email.  So, forth I went and downloaded the file, which was 300 megabytes (not a light load by any means).  It’s broken down into pages such as messages, friends, notes, wall, etc along with folders with photos and videos.  It’s all really fascinating, though with material going as far back at 2006.  

The Floodgates of Copying

But this has me reflecting again on the nature of preservation and records in the digital age.  While certainly so much can be wiped out very easily, there are also many more copies available.  Before the printing press, if a person destroyed a book, that may be the only copy of that book around and thus, the knowledge the book contained could be lost.  This is the case in the burnings of the Library of Alexandria.  In the mechanized age of the 19th and 20th century, destroying books did not have nearly as caustic repercussions (though, we have inevitably lost some books; not many by contrast).  But in the digital age, where bits are easily replicable instantaneously (simple copy & paste), much throughout the Internet can be (and is being) preserve.  The most classic example is The Way Back Machine at the Internet Archive where you can few what websites looked like for each year they have been in existence (and sometimes, you can see month to month or day to day changes).  


What is intriguing about Facebook is not just that it contains a person’s history, usage of the site and other information, but from a historical perspective, if gives us much more.  After all, Facebook isn’t just one person writing/posting for his or her own pleasure.  Instead, it’s an intricate web of connections and back and forth discussion among a range of people—entire conversations occur on people’s “wall” in their absence.  As I’ve said before, a “Facebook profile” has a mixed authorship between the company, Facebook, the person whose profile it is, and the person’s friends; they all come together on the profile to make it what it is.  And now, that can be seen in the large scope of things.


This has the potential to pack a powerful amount of tracking/exploring of how social networks and interactions develop, work, and evolve.  In tracking this, it not only allows us to better understand the sociological and psychological elements but also to actually have a (albeit limited) accounting of a person’s life.  After all, for active users, Facebook is essentially an interactive journal revealing a variety of things about their choices, preferences, actions, interests, etc that might not generally come out in any kind of standard record keeping.  From “Likes” to “Fans” to “Tags” to all the other kind of information provided about each person, it allows for a plethora of things to research.  


But most importantly in this possibility is that access to a large group of people (non-elite, in particular) with this range of information is unprecedented and extremely useful.  Gathering this kind of information has usually required soliciting individuals in expensive/expansive research projects.  But imagine if at some point, Facebook made this information accessible to sociologists, anthropologists, and historians (among other researchers).  It could generate a great deal of research.  (Granted, this also scares the bejeepus out of us because it implies our personal information would be out there.  However, that could simply be fixed by replacing names with numbers to avoid individual divulgence; or have a rule of name reveals could not happen until 10 years after a person’s death or some other means of keeping individual anonymity).  


The floodwaters of social dynamics (or social dynamics in an online environment) could give significant insight into understanding humanity as well as potential ideas about the past or how the individual experiences and discusses historical events (take your pick of events in the last 6 years).  

QUESTIONS

What is some of the information that could be weaned from one’s profile that could be used for the historical record?  


What specific ways could the profile history give insight into larger cultural/historical events?


How much can we rely on what is being said as “truth”?  Definitely, people lie (and they have lied throughout history) but are there things that we can consider more reliable as truthful than others (that is, just like with primary sources, there are some things that we feel are more reliable/dependable to believe than others; so what are those more believable things in a Facebook profile)?



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Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.


Comments

  1. Reading this article was somewhat scary yet educating. I already am careful about what goes on my Facebook, I un-tag numerous photos after some weekends. After reading this, I am not sure if that is good enough. I planned to delete mostly everything off my Facebook once I graduate so that it wouldn't hurt possible job opportunities but reading this makes me just want to delete it forever right now for good.
    As for historical records, I think pictures and wall posts and statuses could be used for records. You can learn about about someone from looking at their profile. Say if someone newly famous died and someone else was writing about their life. Photos and quotes from Facebook can be taken to write about a certain person.
    Examining profiles could lead to different views of people after significant events. During holidays you will see many statuses that say "merry Christmas" and what not. But what if studies were done on days of natural disasters and other events? I think a lot of insight could be gotten from a range of different people since it is a global platform.
    I also believe that some FB info cannot be taken seriously. Many people post stuff to make their image look cooler or more appealing to other people when in fact they are a completely different person.
    Overall knowing this information now will change how I pursue my actions on Facebook. I personally do not take many pictures and upload them to Facebook but from my experience it is the girls that are always snapping pictures for Facebook. Maybe some people don't realize the consequences of this but if it keeps me from getting a job, in this economy it is not worth it.

    Jake

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  2. I found this article extremely fascinating and enjoyed reading it. It not only educated me, but also scared me to think that scientists and researchers could someday gain access to my information. I do not put anything on Facebook that I don’t want others to see. I believe Facebook is for me to meet new people and interact with my friends. I don’t believe peoples Facebook’s should someday be used as research projects. Information such as my birthday, the high school I graduated from, the college I attend, my email address, family members, statuses, pictures, and wall posts can be used as historical records. The statues, wall posts, and pictures on Facebook give insight into specific events. If it’s someone’s birthday, a gathering of friends, a graduation, a family gathering, or a holiday: such as Christmas statuses and wall posts are posted. After the events pictures are posted on Facebook and the people in the pictures are tagged; therefore, you not only know what the event is but also who attended it. On Facebook people put up false information as a joke such as: relationships, family members, profile pictures, and wall posts. You could be viewing someone’s profile with a fake profile picture, have friends listed as family members, be in a fake relationship, and have wall posts that are merely jokes. We do not necessarily know what is false and what is real on Facebook, but there is a lot of information that’s real and can be used as historical records.

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  3. Technology is taking over people's lives, especially teens. The thing scary about this article is all the truth behind it. As stated in the article above "Facebook is an interactive journal". I completely agree with this. As we all know journals are personal information people want to say and get out with, in most cases, without other people seeing it. In knowing this why would people want to write all their personal information for the world to see? With out saying more and sounding like a hypocrite, I do have to admit that I have a Facebook. So after I read this article I thought to my self,why do I have a Facebook, do I really want people to know all the personal information about me, to read my personal journal? Then it also got me thinking why do I look at other people's Facebook or "journals". I guess the only answer I have to this is to get information that I other wise would never know. To learn more about people on a personal level allows me the feeling of social acceptance. A social acceptance in knowing that I'm not an outcast to the rest of the world. Maybe this also stands for other people who are apart of the Facebook network. Overall this made me think of the "power" mentioned above and the overall truth that one day Facebook could take over people's lives and allowing them into the personal journals of others.

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  4. This article was very interesting. Looking at it from a person who is fond of history’s point of view is extremely different than how I would have looked at it. To me, Facebook is sort of like a person’s social golden gate. Since nothing is said or done by any physical means and everything happens over the computer, for the most part it is still inverted. People turn to Facebook as a way of expressing themselves whether by updating their status’, posting on a friend’s wall, or posting pictures from specific events in our lives. For the socially active, Facebook is a mainstream news machine and it can be used to essentially benefit one’s social life. Any information provided can be accessed to anyone on Facebook. A question asked was how much of this can we deem as truth? Well, even if some were to lie about what they were doing in their status’s or about their basic information, many of these things can be deeper researched ands solved if necessary. Even if the lies were harmless, one from the future could acquire what culture was like now-a-days. Even sometimes when I look back on my old pictures or wall posts, you can see the difference in the way I dress, what I’m doing in the pictures, or even how I typed and the words i used can be indicators of my intelligence during that time. All in all, I do agree and must say that Facebook would be a perfect example of history records for historians in the future.

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  5. According to Mark Zuckerberg, the maker of Facebook, there are currently over 500 million people using facebook. Although I am one of those users who thinks it's a great way to communicate with friends, this article definitely put a new perspective on it. It scares me to think that even deleting my account does not completely erase everything I have done on this website.
    There are many things that people put on Facebook that could be used for historical records such as status updates, wall posts, photos, videos, likes, interests, etc. These things could be used for records because by using these things you can see what types of things were occuring during this time, what different things were popular, what people wore and looked like during this time and how people spoke to each other.
    Specifically, agreeing with Jake, many people update their status or join groups according to things going on in the world and by looking at the different things people write or the groups they join, you can see what specific things were happening culturally.
    However, there are many things that people put on facebook that are untrue. Facebook gives people the opportunity to write things about themselves and in an attempt to look "cooler" they may write things that aren't true. However, things on a facebook profile that could be believable could be groups that people join because most likely, people will only join a group when they feel strongly about something which is most likely a serious thing.

    Madeline

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  6. After reading this article, I have found that Facebook is a lot more revealing than it was before I read this. It is scary in a way to think that everything you say to friends can be read by anyone. I am not the type of person who sits on Facebook for hours at a time but it is still interesting that everything you say online is documented. The history cannot be deleted so whatever you are talking about online can be read by others. Things like walls, pictures, likes, messages, can all be read by others even if you delete the history. However, Facebook is also a way to communicate with friends who you might not see every day. For example, someone could have family out of state and Facebook is a great way to stay in touch with them as long as you are being aware of what you are posting. Facebook also brings us much more in a historical perspective because it enables us to document thoughts and expressions which give people an understanding of who we are or who we once were. It is a source for the future that will let the upcoming generations know what we were all about which could be useful in understanding the past.
    Kyle

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  7. Some of the points made about facebook are very true. Its pretty creepy that history from it is saved forever, for example: I have a fried that passed away two years ago however, she still has a facebook and every once in a while people will write things such as “we all miss you” or “always remembered.” In a way, its like people live on in an online world even after there no longer here… which I think is WEIRD! Its also pretty scary that anyone can find out pretty much anything they want to about a person by simply looking at their wall and the back and forth conversations that they have with people. However, I’ll admit I don’t know what id do without facebook; it is a huge part of life in this day in age. As far as history goes, facebook can be used as a means of looking at historical events by going to the dates and looking at people’s status’, conversations, and photos. There is even an option to put your political views on facebook. But no, not everything on facebook can be relied on as the truth. For example: what high school girl hasn’t started, been involved in, or been the victim of a facebook rumor? Over all, facebook can be looked at as a journal, or as a means of communication and contact with others, but its definitely a huge part of today’s society.

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  8. There are several things that could be taken from someone's profile to be put in the historical record. Music interests, popular movies at a given times as well as similar activities could teach researchers a great deal. It could also be used as a marketing tool. I'm not saying that I'm "for" doing that but it is definitely possible. A marketing trend could be found through profile history and lead to many new inventions and future innovative technologies. The music interests is definitely one of the few things that I believe are the most truthful parts of a facebook profile. Most people will put their favorite music artists with more truth than other aspects of the profile. Another part of the profile that could be considered "real" are the photos. Most people don't photoshop their photos on facebook and it can tell people what clothes the person wears, what they look like, where they hang out, where they live as well as many other things. A photo can provide the physical evidence needed to back up the "reality" of someone's profile. I believe that photos are the only real clear cut example of reality with facebook. They show who a person is and in a sense, make you who you are on facebook.

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  9. When it comes to Facebook, basically everyone has one. Who doesn’t creep? For most teens, it is seen to be very addicting and distracting, especially when it comes to doing homework. It is crazy how all of your history is saved and can go back to the very first post on your page years ago. I am very careful about what I post and what pictures are up of me, not only for my own safety but because I play sports I can’t be getting in any trouble. It is your own choice to put what information you want other people to see and which privacy settings to choose. As for history records, pictures capture moments in time which can be used as memoirs or records. Also, statuses and posts can be looked back at as important or happy times between people that can be referred to as history. You can learn a lot about a person from their profile. It shows interests they had, and the people they are friends with. That shows a lot about someone. Facebook is used as a way of communication for people who don’t get to see each other often. It is a great way to document the past, as long as people are careful about what they say and post.

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  10. From someones Facebook page, you can essentially learn almost everything about them, from their interests to their beliefs to what they're doing Saturday night. For example, on your Facebook page, you have the choice to put your sexual orientation, your religions and political beliefs, as well as your common interests and a small blurb about yourself that can be written however you choose. Simple things like that can be saved for a historical record, and can be very easily seen at a first glance at someone's page. Using and saving someone's information like that can tell you how their opinions affect bigger and better things. If someone puts on their page that they are a Democrat, you can safely assume the voted for Barack Obama for president while he was running. That does not mean it's necessarily true, but people can make all sorts of assumptions and send things around that are not true. Though Facebook lets your express who you are on a personal level, that does not mean it's solid and set in stone. Facebook is not something we can rely on for the 'truth' about people. Sure, some aspects of the website and people's profiles are definitely true and honest. But, overall, it's not a very stable or solid way of getting information about someone, especially for records. The fact that you can now trace back your posts and messages from when you first started on the site is rather scary, yet it enlightens you on how you used to be, and how your beliefs have changed over the years. Because of people's changing opinions, their page will change with them, so do not take a Facebook page so seriously. Chances are, it's not going to stay like that forever.

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  11. Facebook today has blown up in the social and commutative world. It seems like everyone you meet has a facecbook and more people are joining everyday. However, facebook is great way to meet people and also keep track of historical events. You can tell a lot about a person and events by what people post on their “wall”. A few examples of how facebook keeps track of historical events are wall posts, status updates, pictures, videos, like and interests and so much more. These could be used as historical records because a person could go back and look at that person’s page and see what they were doing at certain times. For example, they could look at a photo album on their page and see what was going on at that time and what people were wearing and how they acted with others. We can also rely on videos to give us clear view on how people acted and what life was like during that time. However, although facebook allows us to observe peoples social life, there are always people who do not write down the truth. Facebook gives people an opportunity to express their like, interest and overall who they really are. Most people however write down untrue facts about themselves in order to seem “cooler”. Most people lie about their age, where they live and sometimes even their name (it’s very strange). However, one thing we can rely the truth on is the likes and group’s people join. This gives us a clear view on what kind of person they are and what they might do for a hobby.

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  12. When thinking about what I as well as many people my age post on our Facebook profiles it’s somewhat uncomfortable to think that people could use it as historical records. Information that could be taken from one’s profile is not only their name and date of birth but also who they were like as a person. Many times you can see if a person is popular and or happy with themselves by their status’s and “wall” activity. I believe that using Facebook could definitely give insight into us as a culture in the future. The days of asking someone their cell phone number is so 90’s, now it’s “what’s your name, do you have Facebook?” Almost everyone I know has an account including adults as old as my grandparents. It has become a very useful phenomenon and historians will have a huge advantage when looking back on the “Facebook Era” because we all post who we are and what we’re doing almost daily. A lot about Facebook is really just smoke and mirrors people, I including post things that we want people to press the “like” button for. So most of what you see isn’t always true, there are some parts that I consider to be true. Like the info that people puts in their profile. After reading this post it has opened my eyes to the fact that although you may think you have erased something there may still be a picture of you you’d rather not have a possible employer see.

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  13. Some information that historians could take from a person’s facebook page is the culture and current news of the time in which that person is living during. They could view the history and culture by studying the person’s facebook page. If the historian looks at the type of language that people write in on wall comments and picture comments it could give them some insight into the culture. Many people on facebook write in types of web abbreviations like LOL and ROFL. This could show that using internet to communicate is very important and prominent part of these people’s culture. Also the types of things that people “like” on his or her facebook page could also give insight on the culture in which they live. People “like” types of music that they listen to, TV shows they watch, and books they read and hobbies that they may enjoy. This could show what is popular in the culture, it also shows that music and television are very important in our culture, through which historians could infer that media plays a huge role in these people’s lives. Another thing that could give historians a view into our culture is the pictures that people post on their facebook profile. It could show what types of architecture and buildings are around and what type of environment people live in. Pictures could also show what types of food people eat, among other things. Facebook could give insight to a historian because many people post their views through comments on each other’s walls and through their status updates about certain subjects like politics and world affairs. Things like “go vote for so and so”, or “end the war in Iraq”. Also people post news web articles and news videos on facebook; these could also give insight into what types of things are going on in the world today. A problem that a historian may encounter with facebook is the validity of the information given on facebook. People’s posts about the world may be completely misinformed. Especially because many of the people on facebook are young, like teenagers, they may not fully understand what is going on in the world news. Validity would be very hard to measure through facebook because many things posted are just opinions, also, people could be lying or giving false information. A way to figure out what is actually correct on facebook is to piece together many different pieces of information from different facebook pages and try to make sense of what seems logical and illogical. Historians could take all the information and piece it together in a story line.

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  14. Facebook is the center of some of my friend’s lives, and most teens across the United States. Facebook knows everything about everyone, and strangers can also know when and what you are doing due to most teens, every two minutes status change. This article is scary in a way because the thought of once something goes up; it cannot come down in this case. It’s disturbing to thing that a post I made in 2005 can still be found today. Maybe it is sad in a way that I had to open up my Facebook to look at it to write this? Some people know Facebook way too much in today’s society and it has taken over people’s social lives but not me! There are definitely some things that people in history could look back and take from the Facebook generations. Such as any given persons music, movies interests, high school/college and ones education, almost anything on Facebook, can be traced back and researched. Things you cannot look back and assume are people’s real names, age, friends, and pictures. People crop pictures and edit theirs so they always look good, some people add anyone to be there friends just so they are “cool” and have over 1000 friends and people put fake names so schools cannot find them, and also no one ever puts their real age at first.

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  15. Reading this blog caused me to think more into the world of Facebook. I had already been thinking about how complex this social networking website really is, but the blog taught me much more. To start, I couldn’t believe that there is now a “Download Your Information” option. To think that once you click this option, you are able to see your online activity from years back is perplexing. Reading about this makes me think of a time capsule. To explain, Facebook has basically created your own virtual time capsule so that you are able to see what you were taking pictures of or who you were messaging over the web in your past.
    Facebook has truly become a piece of history. I had never thought of Facebook with a historical perspective until I read this blog. Furthermore, it is interesting to think that a profile does not contain just one person, it is a large number of people writing, posting and sharing on this one person’s page. Each Facebook profile contains a variety of people communicating and connecting. It is hard to comprehend how complex this social networking website has become. If Facebook has already thought to create a “Download Your Information” option, I cannot even imagine what will be created within this website in the future.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Reading this blog caused me to think more into the world of Facebook. I had already been thinking about how complex this social networking website really is, but the blog taught me much more. To start, I couldn’t believe that there is now a “Download Your Information” option. To think that once you click this option, you are able to see your online activity from years back is perplexing. Reading about this makes me think of a time capsule. To explain, Facebook has basically created your own virtual time capsule so that you are able to see what you were taking pictures of or who you were messaging over the web in your past.
    Facebook has truly become a piece of history. I had never thought of Facebook with a historical perspective until I read this blog. Furthermore, it is interesting to think that a profile does not contain just one person, it is a large number of people writing, posting and sharing on this one person’s page. Each Facebook profile contains a variety of people communicating and connecting. It is hard to comprehend how complex this social networking website has become. If Facebook has already thought to create a “Download Your Information” option, I cannot even imagine what will be created within this website in the future.

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  17. Some information that could be weaned from one’s profile that could be used for historical record be maybe where the person has worked, where the person has lived, or who the person may have had relationships with.

    The profile history could give insight into larger cultural/historical events maybe if they were ever involved in a huge crime that has changed somewhere around the world drastically, leaving evidence to find out more behind the scenes evidence and maybe who else could have been involved etc..

    Obviously everyone lies , and it is clearly way easier to lie over Facebook, when you are looking and what we like to call “Facebook stalking” , what you read under “information” about a certain person it may be common sense to if their age/where they live/which sex they are, is all a lie. To figure out which of the information is true, it’s then a good idea to go into investigation mode and creep through their pictures, or maybe look at some of the friends who have posted that persons wall. If the person says they are 50 and their pictures are of them as really young and only have really young friends writing on their wall, then clearly that person may not be 50, they might just put that there because they may be “too young” , as parents would say, for facebook. So those are some things that we can find out that may be true or not.

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  18. Some things that could be taken from one’s profile that could be used for the historical record is pretty much anything you can find on Facebook. For example, status updates can definitely be used in the case of what is happening in the world at that time. One may see statuses that talk about the weather that’s worth talking about like hurricanes or storms. Some statuses may talk about things people hear on the news, like important government updates or pending court cases. One can also get information like this from pictures, say if someone took pictures of whatever was happening and uploaded them to their profile.
    Photos, status updates, comments, and likes can all give insight into larger cultural events. Pictures that people take of certain events are much better than just comments of people talking about what was happening because it gives better proof and understanding because you can see the actual event instead of just reading about it. Also, you can believe more of what you see than what you read because some people may lie or exaggerate the truth. Although you may not be able to believe everything you read, reading what people say in comments and status may still help you understand a little about the event and the more you read, the more you may be able to decipher which statements may be true and which may be false.

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  19. I think we can all agree the fact facebook can store everything you have said to anyone, or anything that has been said to you, any click you have ever made on a persons photos, wall posts, etc is stored in facebook's database and anyone can see it. Some of the things that could be used for historical record from a persons facebook page are there pictures. When looking at pictures you can usually tell where the person was, who they were with, what they were wearing and when it happened. It's like when we look through our old pictures from middle school yearbooks and elementary school and think to ourselves "what was I wearing?..." Another thing is a persons status updates. Looking at a persons status tells us how they're feeling and sometimes tells us about something big that has happened that day. For example, the day Michael Jackson passed away I found out by checking my facebook on break at work and seeing everyones statuses. If we looked back on people statuses in years to come we could read about things we completely forgot happened or find out new things we never knew happened.

    I am a strong believer in the saying "seeing is believing". Sometimes you can't take a persons word but if you witness something you have to believe it. Seeing wall posts talking about an event is totally different than seeing photos of an event. Wall posts could be unreliable because people could be kidding around, or just don't have their facts straight. Seeing a picture is a better way to see what actually happened, because we all know a picture is worth a thousand words.

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  20. Who doesn’t have a Facebook profile now these days? After reading this blog, I noticed that many people of all ages have Facebook profiles. The information that anyone could get from one’s profile that could be used for historical records could be the pictures people take. A picture is worth a thousand words. You can tell a lot about a person by the way they present themselves. Facebook also has insight on cultural events. For example, people “like” on different pages on Facebook types of music, TV shows, books, movies and hobbies that they enjoy. People can “like” other people’s photos and comments too. Facebook will be a useful tool for upcoming generations to have a better understanding of history. Imagine history could have been this easily documented before as it is now. The more time goes by it will be easier for historians to get information from our generation and on. Many people put more personal information than myself and others would put up. Why do we have Facebook to put our personal business all out there in the open? Yes, this is a great way to keep in touch with those that we are friends with, but do not see all the time. Yes, this is, also, a great way to meet new people, so you do need to put yourself out there a little. But do we push our personal history just a bit to far? At times, I believe so.

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  21. The popularity of Facebook in our generation is overwhelming and honestly scary. When I was in middle school, a lot of my peers had Myspace and AIM, which were the "cool" ways to communicate with friends at that time. However the popularity of these two sites do not even begin to compare to Facebook. I can confidently say that i truly do not know, or have met, a single person around my age who does not use Facebook. It's definitely convenient for us to communicate with each other, especially with the increasing popularity of smart phones, a lot of people can communicate via Facebook anytime, anywhere. The use of Facebook is also increasing more and more with older adults. What makes it so convenient is the fact that your confidence skyrockets. It is much easier to talk to someone through a computer or phone screen than face to face. Whether it be a public argument, flirting, etc., it certainly give you guts you wouldn't necessarily have otherwise. It has permanently changed the way humans communicate with each other. That is why I think historians will be so baffled when they look back at our generation. It is such a drastic change in communication between people. Because of how overconfident people can be when speaking to each other via Facebook, they can be very blunt, harsh, even mean. Hence all of the online bullying scandals that have been taking place around the U.S. It's devastating and terrible and it's websites that Facebook that are to be blamed. Of course I use it like everyone else (even a little excessively, I admit), it's just incredible to imagine what historians and psychologists in the future will be thinking when they look back at our internet relationships. Also, as other people have mentioned in their responses, many people do not portray themselves as who they really are on their profiles. Many people, teenagers especially, put in a lot of effort to put forth a certain "image" they would like their FB "friends" to perceive them as. It's all a big joke and should not be taken seriously, and I just hope that nothing taken from Facebook is considered dependable or reliable information in the future. A lot of the information is fake/untrue and honestly useless.

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  22. This article made me realize many different things. One of the things that I realized while reading this article was that keeping your facebook page clean and free of things that may take opportunities away from you in your future is important. I think that this article was very informative. I did not know that they had this option, and I downloaded my history to see what I had out there from previous years. Although it is interesting to see what you've done in the past, it’s also kind of scary. I agree with what Madison said, technology, especially facebook, is a major part of our generation. You rarely come across someone who does not use facebook. Facebook is a good way to communicate with people from your past or connect with people to help you in your future. Facebook can help with many different things in your life; contacting and meeting people may be able to help you with future job connections or even something as simple as making new friends. Something new will always come out, and there is no stopping our generation. First it was all about AIM, then MySpace, and now Facebook...what's next?

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  23. This probably won't come as a surprise to you, but I am an avid user of facebook. Sometimes I will stare at my laptop for hours, snooping around on people's profile that I haven't seen in a long time. Sometimes I will do this to avoid homework, and sometimes I will do this purely for the hell of it. My addiction is really quite sad, and I cringe when I think about how excited I am to receive new notifications.
    Facebook is a phenomenon- a craze. Who knows if or when it will pass. And it is constantly changing, coming out with new innovations, modifications, as stated in your entry. This new possibility of being able to see your entire history is both intriguing and frightening. I think I would enjoy taking a brief tour through my history sometime, just for fun, as all my activities on facebook are. However, the more I think about it, the less I agree with it. It is without a doubt a step too far, and an invasion of privacy. The notion of not being able to get rid of anything you might have said or done or posted on facebook is so unforgiving, so deflating. There is no room for regret or remorse or change. Because it will always be there.
    As far as use of people's facebook history for historical research I do not think that a person's facebook profile is a reliable enough source to merit use in any kind of professional context. I see literally no benefit to being able to access a person's entire history on facebook. It is something similar to Wikipedia in my opinion.
    I think facebook is great for meeting people, maintaining friendships, and organizing events. Nothing needs to be changed or added. Let's not augment the technology takeover even more.

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  24. When reading this article about Facebook, I feel that it is very true. People put all their information out there for everyone to see. Only very few people put their Facebook pages to private. Also, if private, there are ways for people to view pages. Often people friend request people, so they can view there profiles.
    Facebook could be used by historians to better understand society. Pieces of information that would be important would be age, likes of pages, statuses, biography section, favorite T.V shows, favorite books, and pages that were liked. Historians could use this information, and better understand each age group. Facebook is used by almost all college, and high school students. These historians could understand daily life through statuses. Many teens post many statuses about their days, and what they are doing. Also, they could better understand the interests of these teens. Facebook reveals a lot about people, and historians could better understand teens in the 21st century.
    There are times in history where information has been false. I’m sure that everyone has lied on Facebook through a wall Post, or a status. There are parts of facebook that tell the truth, and there are primary sources to prove it. Many people add pictures on Facebook of parties, and other events. In these pictures historians can better understand underage drinking because a good amount of pictures show underage profiles with alcohol. Everything else on Facebook can be subjective, but I think that most of it is true. Facebook is a basically a journal of peoples life’s. If people lie on it friends can usually tell. Friends know the likes of people and know when their friends are lying.

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  25. Lots can be weaned for historical records, for instance, your wall quotes that you put up on your wall or someone else's wall. People should be smart with facebook and not put anything up that is stupid. You never know who is watching what, people can hack that website in two seconds. Some people are careless with what they write, and that's very dumb because that could be reported no problem. You could have wrote something three years ago, it doesn't matter. All they have to do is see that something bad was written and that's it for you. People have to start being more responsible on facebook because you never know who is looking at your profile. For instance say if a person is in an agruement with another person and they threaten them, if the people from facebook see this they can easily take it too the police and the person who did the threatening can get into some serious trouble with the law for doing something like this. It stays in your history nothing is ever erased, if people just started to use their brians with facebook then it wouldn't be a problem. Facebook is nothing but trouble I believe but if you use it in the manner that it should be used in then people won't have any problems

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  26. This article is hilariously awesome and not as scary as people are making it seem. It is hilariously awesome because, not only did I go download my information right after I read it was possible, but because it is now possible for me to be able to look at my life as a little history book because I can look at my posts and remember what they meant back when I put them up. This will be an even greater thing for me and people who are of my age when we are older, to be able to see what we were like at this age and have (essentially a diary) of my childhood. A diary is actually a good way to put it.
    I do not find this too scary because if the information has been put on Facebook, then whoever wrote it had some intention of other people seeing it, otherwise they would have just called the other person. If people have something they want to keep private, Facebook probably is not the best place to be talking about it. I have nothing to hide on Facebook, if I was or am hiding something, I am certainly not going to put it on a public website, so this fear of people being able to see my stuff is ridiculous.
    This idea to be able to download your history of Facebook is a great idea to me because it is a quick summarization of my life in the time of which I had a Facebook to help me remember the times that I forget as I age.

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  27. I never knew that any of that information could be accessed and reading that really surprised me! This kind of makes me look at Facebook in a new perspective. If it is that easy to access all your old activity, how easy could it be for someone else to do the same. This is the scary thing about the internet. My mother has always warned me, “watch what you put out there because even if you delete it, it’s still floating around.” In a sense I guess that is true.
    I think Facebook is a great social tool, one of the best ones in this decade, but it can be very dangerous. For instance, type your own name in Google and watch what pops up. Unless you are someone famous or have an extremely common name, the first link is usually your Facebook profile. That’s how easy it is for someone to come across you. This is why people need to be careful what they put out there. A potential employer can easily look you up on the internet if it is a close call in deciding whether or not you get the job. It is safer to stay away from the “being cool” pictures that everyone tends to put up on Facebook.
    Anyhow, Facebook can lead you into the life of a person, but also into the time and place as well. During important things or even not so important things, people update statuses. When something popular is going on, a lot of people tend to have statuses relating to similar topics. Depending on what these statuses are you can get a glimpse into what time period it was and what was going in. As an example, if you went back to my Facebook profile on June 9th 2010, you would probably see about 300 teenagers with a quite similar status, and that is because that is the day of my high school graduation. Facebook is a great tool for sharing things with friends who likely have many of the same interests. On a Sunday, my news feed is flooded of updates about who threw the ball to who, and what team just got a touchdown. Something as simple as Facebook gives a clue of people’s interests, their age, and the time period in which all this occurs.
    Over time, people have become more dependent on Facebook. Back in 2006 I didn’t have nearly as many people I knew on Facebook. But now you see a post saying “What’s up for tonight?” and it’s the easiest way to make plans. Over the years Facebook has developed into one of the easiest ways to communicate with your friends.

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  28. Facebook is the easiest way to socialize with new and old friends. Also an easy way to make new friends. People should be cautious on what they put on Facebook because anyones name can be searched and found. I am an avid user of Facebook but I am responsible and smart with what I put on my page and also others pages.
    Checking profile history would be quite amusing, I think it an awesome idea and a way to look back on the early years of your life. Profile history would be great for the historical aspect of the website. The website (FACE BOOK) just started to catch fire with teens all over the world a few years ago. Now hundreds of millions of people use Facebook on a day to day basis. Facebook will be around for a long time, People can use Facebook for historical records later on in life. Either to remember the fun times celebrating your birthday or holiday. If you use Facebook responsibly then there is nothing to worry about. But be careful with what you put or is put about you on Facebook because a lot of people have easy access to what you say.
    For the time being, I love Facebook its a replacement for other ways to communicate with people such as Instant Messenger and Myspace.

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  29. Reading this was an interesting experience, being a face book user myself, yet a not very active one. The ability to go through my past and look up what I've said is fascinating to me. I did not know about this feature until this blog post actually.
    Since I do not, as do most of us, remember what we’ve done and said. I keep tabs on my facebook, making sure nothing bad or illegal ends up on there, not that I do anything illegal anyway. But a word to the wise is this, think about how this could be utilized to stop the "he said" and "she said": a way to stop people from hiding what they’ve done and really see what they said in cold hard evidence. But, this only can progress if there was a way for no one to mess with the data.
    However, the impact of it being so easy to change what you've said in an instant, with a few clicks and keyboard strokes, in the digital age is scary. Someone can accuse you of something that did not do and completely screw you over, and that terrifies me to my core. However, making it so it is un-editable by the general public leaves it up to facebook, and we will have to trust them that they are only logging the truth, just like the police or other government services. I imagine there would be cases of tampering, because lets face it, humans are self-centered bastards that only look out for themselves and their families.

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  30. Well i do agree with what you are saying about how facebook is great for keeping history and is a social web of communication i do not believe it is overall good for society as a whole. Facebook is a physical form of ego in a sense. it makes us glimpses of peoples lives with pictures and wall posts that may not truly represent the person at all. pPople put up quotes all of the time that say something about them but if those quotes really meant something to them then they should not have the need to put them up. Yes people share ideas on it and talk with friends but is chatting with a friend online really communicating? I feel like our communication skills are plummeting as technology expands. There is so much that has been lost by lack of body language in the way we communicate which has been an important part of communication for all of human history. Face book distances people from themselves and their friends. Facebook is the site that most people go to when they start up the internet people are obsessed and it is their ego which they are obsessing about. It's similar to a mirror. Your profile is the equivalent to your mirror. Why should you care about someone else's view of you? In psychology they call it the looking-glass theory which is caring more about how other people view you than how you view you and facebook escalates this significantly and its harmful to society by making us decide judgement on peoples lives by bits of information and a few pictures and by making us worse at communicating in real life situations.

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  31. I agree that Facebook could possibly be a good place to gather information for historical records, or for whatever else it may be needed for. Some good things to take from a person's profile to put in historical records would be things such as photos, statuses, and wall posts. Also messages and notes would be helpful. I think that these would be the most helpful because it can paint a picture of what today's society and culture is like. By gathering different photos and posts from a couple of different people, we can how most people are spending the majority of their time. Photos and videos are a good use of visuals which can show what people are doing and how they are acting. Statuses and wall post show how people are spending their time and what they are interested in. They also show what we view as “important” in our lives and our feelings towards other things. Another thing we can gather from Facebook is the importance of technology during this time. People freely put their whole lives on the internet, for everybody and anybody to see. I feel that face book has a lot of useful information that would be helpful for researchers in the future.

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  32. This article re-inforces my belief that people nowadays are way too dependent on the internet. We have virtually no privacy anymore, and we can partially thank technology for this. Facebook has become more than a network to socialize, or an easier way to maintain friendships with those who have moved away, attend different schools, etc. In more cases than not, it has literally become some people's lives, which is scary.

    I believe that Facebook will make an excellent source for researchers or historians to understand the social and political issues of our time. Just think about it, people post everything on Facebook. From personal thoughts, to social events, controversial fights, to less than flattering photos, etc. I don't believe historians should rely 100% on Facebook simply because people do lie on it and make things up, but as for pictures and videos, there's not much you can do to alter that.

    Even though Facebook will help historians in the future and a lot of great information can be extracted from the site people should remain skeptical. Too much of anything never leads to anything good. That's why, I truly believe, people need to learn how to use Facebook in moderation.

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  33. It’s definitely scary to know that Facebook, the Mecca of social life, will forever have access to my history. Just like it was mentioned above, before the printing press, all historical records were written by hand on a book. In most cases, they would only have one copy of that book, which would make it impossible for the public to have any access to it. But in the digital age of today, the Internet has changed all of that. A simple copy and paste makes replication of information as fast as a blink of an eye. Now, millions upon millions of peoples’ information on Facebook are being preserved, from photos and status updates to “likes” and wall posts.
    Maybe one good benefit that comes out of this “preserving your history” mess is that it can all be used to give insight into larger cultural and history events. Nowadays, most major events such as elections, concerts, professional games, parties etc. are mentioned somehow on Facebook, whether by advertisements or invitations. If one were to browse through this data, they would be able to get a glimpse of the society we have today.
    One problem that might arise is that not everything that is on Facebook is “true”. In part, I believe that not only do people lie on Facebook but they can also be misjudged. I fully believe, though, that there is nothing on Facebook that we can rely on. There are many people that put things on their profile who want to make themselves seem more appealing to the public, so you can never know when it is true or just a mere facade. People even lie about small things like age and interests just so they can gain some point on their social status. In conclusion, Facebook is something not to be entirely reliable but could give some glimpse of today’s society (and its obsession with its so-called “social life”).

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  34. Wow! I am very inpressed with my fellow classmates. The people who stayed with us all simester i think are pretty cool in their own right. My hat is off to them! This is not a response to your story about Facebook, Hell I did not even read most of it! It's about how people responded to it that I love. Even if they were playing catch up, and needed to do all five blogs if think the way they answered this one is f@#$ing Great!! I spent a lot of time and read every one, and found a lot of hard work with some rightous stuff. I don't care if it was Anouymous or Loren's or Kyle's people were on the same page, and most said the same thing but used different ways to say it, it was great. The person who told you about their classmates who are on Facebook in class should have looked at Brittney's response on how it "is Addicting, and Distracting", some people just can't help it. Hell I'm 50+ and have trouble with it (I need a life). Instead of going to you and throughing everybody under the bus they should have asked there classmates. All in all I feel that we had a Great class, and I am very lucky to have been in the same class with all of them.

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  35. It essentially comes down to what an individual believes is the truth. The source usually has everything to do with whether or not something sounds believable. When it comes to history from Facebook and downloading your previous endeavors, I would not see any reason to doubt that it is all the truth. All that this sounds like is taking text, pictures, etc. posted onto the website and sending it to the person who wishes to receive this information. I see no reason why this could not be misconstrued as false. The process may be a bit off-putting, but nevertheless the information should be accurate.
    I have found in life that the truth is measured heavily on independence and logic. In order to filter what should be implied as the truth, one needs to be intellectual and open-minded enough to be able to decide what is truth. Coming from a text book or a professor is one thing, but hearing some sort of information by mouth from someone who does not keep themselves publically informed and cultured makes a person have to be capable of knowing how to interpret truth. Hearing, for example, that Cher has decided to become a hip-hop star would be absolutely ludicrous. Through common sense, one can filter out the truth and remain headstrong about their own opinions.

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  36. Facebook can very well have an effect on our history, as it already is. There are some Facebook users that post a new status after every breath, they continuously update their status with what they are doing 24/7. Thankfully, none of these people are on my friends list, but these are the types that will be efficient to history in a couple of years. Facebook is not only a social network, to some it is a way of life. Facebook has connected people from all around the world, has started relationships that can lead to marriage, and has also caused arguments which are extremely easy for police to track and connect to a certain crime or violent act. In other words, Facebook is a part of everyday life. It’s everywhere you look, from iPods to cell phones to even Xbox’s. There is no way around facebook, so many people decide to join the billions of people who are active members, and soon become one. It is in fact the largest social network ever seen by the internet, and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change any time soon. The use of finding your profiles history can be extremely useful in terms of history because one can simply click a button a few times, and see what he/she was doing the same time, months, even years ago. This will have a huge impact on society and will allow some people to be cautious with what information they present on Facebook.

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  37. Specific information that could be learned from ones profile that could be used for historical record could include the type of people who have access to the internet. Based on facebook profiles historians could view the age groups and races of people who had facebook. Hey could view which countries had the highest amount of facebook, and thus internet, users. Of course facebook offers up quite a bit more information about people that may not be so important to a historian. These sorts of things could include likes and popular trends of the time, but even these could hold some type of historical importance. Facebook could give insight to popular views, ideas, and themes of the time. What were people doing? What did they think or care about? What was important to these people during his time? All of these questions could be answered from facebook. Profile history could also give serious insight to how cultural and historical event effected certain populations. How did 9/11 really affect people? In what ways were we socially and economically effected? Where people in Europe affected differently than those in the United States? What sorts of cultural views and opinions generated from this specific event and from others? The presidential election could be another event of interest to historians. How did people feel when Barack Obama won the election? Surely there was a lot of racial slandering going on during this historic time, after all he was the first African American president. Facebook could give a serious insight to the views of “general America”. After all, most facebook users are not very rich or “elite” individuals. A vast majority of facebook users are truly “average” people. Historians are always trying to discover how the general public felt about things, after all most of recorded history pertains only to the elite since they were the ones with access to recording methods. Facebook will allow historians to know what went on with average people and how events affected them.

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  38. In my opinion, the general purpose of Facebook and other social networking websites like Myspace is for the user to keep in touch with people in his/her life that may be in different places. For example, Facebook is a good tool to keep in touch with friends and family back home while the user is in college, living elsewhere, etc. However, many users of social networking sites are always interacting with his/her virtual “friends” over the internet instead of talking to people face to face. Social Networking sites only contain as much information in a users profile as the user wants to. If someone uses Facebook everyday, and updates his/her status everyday, that gives the user’s peers insight into the person’s life and how he/she is feeling. If said user looks back on every status that was posted, he/she will remember (vaguely or precisely) what might have happened on that day. Also if said person looks back at all the pictures that he/she posted of themselves or that other people did, they would even more clearly remember what happened on that day when the picture was taken.
    Social networking sites can also be used by employers; schools, etc. get a look into a potential person’s life before meeting said person or acknowledging him/her as a possible asset. Some people may say that this could be an invasion of privacy, or a form of pre-judging someone before they even meet, but they are public websites and the users know that the information is public.

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  39. I believe Facebook to be a very valuable tool in communicating with people all over the world. It has become the easiest way to keep up with friends, family, and colleagues all across the globe. Businesses have started using it to promote themselves and people working for these businesses also have them in order to communicate with other business people. It is still an unsecured website, however, which means that none of your information whether personal or not is going to be completely safe.
    The problem people have with this website is that they do not consider what they are putting on as appropriate or not before they do so. Some people simply do not care which is their own problem. However, I believe that this could be could be very useful when using Facebook in the future as history. The whole website in general could be very useful for historians in the future, but with the way people put things up not caring about if they’re appropriate or not could be that much more useful to people in the future. People who post what they’re actually doing or what their true beliefs are rather than just what they want people to see can help historians use this website in the future as a very accurate source of information.
    I believe this useful website will be useful for things other than just communication. In today’s day and age a huge percentage of people in the world are using Facebook or other websites like it to communicate and let people know what they are doing and what is on their minds. This can potentially be an extremely useful tool to historians of the future do to the fact that everyone is posting things and very few are holding back on what they post. They put whatever they want up on these websites not worrying about it being socially acceptable at times. This is why I believe Facebook will eventually become a great tool for historians to use one day.

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  40. First off let me start by saying I did not know about this and it is pretty crazy. The fact that anyone’s and for that matter everyone’s profile history can be uploaded is ridiculous. This could however be a great help to future historians who are trying to get the insights of the present times. In class we talk about how history is bias and is written by the victors. That was true until now.
    Historians may now have a power that they never had before. Instead of getting a perspective about a certain event from one or two people who are the tellers of the tale; they can now get the same tale but from different sources, the common people that it may or may not have affected, and it won’t be just one person’s perspective but a shared perspective between many friends talking about the same thing. Historians looking back can read and therefore decipher and analyze the feeling that people had about say a presidential election, or some new law being passed and so on. They can see how the people felt and see how times affected the peoples, getting a true perspective on history from the minds of people who lived in it as the present.

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  41. I believe that not many things on Facebook you can believe. What someone might say to someone they trust is a lot different then what they will publically display. For example most of the friends we acquire on Facbook generally speaking are not our friends at all. But then again this is a social network and the original reason behind it was to communicate and meet new people. Yet unquestionably, there are lies on Facebook. I also see a lot of people acting on Facebook. Such as being nice to someone you either have never spoken to or strongly despise. Tracking history of Facebook would not be much help to anyone where it is a site that provides information most of the time deceptive information as well as drama and lots of it. I can understand maybe for statistical use or the company’s purpose tracking how often we as Facebook users message someone or go on a day but our personal messages our and should stay irrelevant. If someone said they were going to kill themselves in a status as I see very often we obviously don’t take them literally. The site is a place where people can creep on other people and excite their lives through posts as well as information. Besides for businesses using it for publicity there is really no truth on Facebook. Businesses may want the tracking history of “likes” and “dislikes” to stay on top of what my generation wants from them as well as try and reach us as their audience but what and who we are on Facebook or a website is most likely a lot different then who we are in person. The things we can take from Facebook and write down in history might be the language we use when talking over the internet. Such as lol (laugh out loud) or ttyl (talk to you later) even ly (love you). Fads such as music we post on our wall or fashion could also help a historian write about this generation but most importantly I think the amount of time spent on Facebook should go down in history. As much as I talk against Facebook I have fallen under its spell for hours at a time.

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  42. I can't say the ability to download someones entire facebook history is a good thing at all. Facebook has grown into a way to judge a person you haven't even met or barely know through their pictures, statuses, and friends. I can say that I have done this when I met someone at a party or out somewhere and I eventually become friends with them on facebook. You look through the persons pictures, read things on their wall, etc. just to figure out who the person really is when you haven't gotten a chance to truly know the person. A persons facebook wall could be completely misleading as if you read my wall you will probably think that I'm a drug addict from quotes from rap songs, and would have a difficult time deciphering inside jokes. I have several friends in law enforcement who after seeing my page urged me to clean it up and I have untagged myself in many pictures and deleted many statuses. This is because all of this stuff can be used against you whether it be with getting a job or even in a court case. All in all, I think facebook should tighten up their securities and not save people's statuses and pictures, and whatever else because it can be very misleading as many kids may age put up posts as jokes and someone who doesn't know the person can interpret them as a serious comment.

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  43. I think Facebook helps put people’s lives in context far more than the previous artifacts from history that have been discovered. Whereas today the artifacts from history are just brief glimpses into one moment in someone’s lives in the past, Facebook is more than that. Facebook puts into context those artifacts that may be “discovered” years from now. Instead of one person’s perspective it gives interacts, words of the day, bits and pieces of the dominant culture of the time. And in terms of understanding how the world at the time works this gives the observer far more insight.
    In terms of what can be learned from Facebook it is important to understand the main cause of Facebook; an increase in a globally connected world. Instead of seeing people gradually move together a time has come where people can stay where they are and still share ideas and parts of culture that could have remained dormant. It’s interesting to see how people in this age deal with this newly developed digital closeness to not only people in their small interconnected world but on the grander arena of other countries. What can be learned and developed is limitless because a new age of interconnectedness has a free flowing of ideas that has rarely been seen in the human world before.

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  44. Reading this article really got me thinking about how much technology really has shaped the world that we live in now. I hear it said all the time but never really think about it. It amazes me how much a simple webpage like facebook has influenced the world. It is in movies, books, magazines, television shows, and just about every other form of popular culture in today's world. It makes me think of the conversation we had in class the other day about the things we "need" and "want" in life. It seems like facebook has become a "new millenium addiction". Everyone is constantly updating their statuses and putting up photos of something that happened twenty minutes ago. For example when I got my new phone, the first thing I looked for was an App for facebook. The reason for this is because I "need" to be in touch with facebook at all times. In reality, I don't "need" I "want" to be in touch with facebook at all times. Usually fads in popular culture are in and out in a matter of a few years at the most but facebook has been around much longer than that. I think that this website has effected our culture so drastically and I think that it is definetly here to stay for the long run.

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  45. This blog post certainly raised my eyebrows a bit. I was unaware that all of my information could be downloaded to my computer. It makes you think who else has access to all of this information. Undoubtedly facebook does make money selling information such as pages you are a fan of and what you ‘like’ to advertising companies, I have noticed since I created my page that the advertisements have become more and more relevant to my interests. Viewed from this perspective it is no wonder that facebook was sold for millions if not billions of dollars from the creator to some corporation. They no longer have to do a blanket campaign of marketing to reach their intended audience, they can target them directly on the webpage that most young adults spend the most time on.
    To answer one of the questions posed I think that these records could be used to study how everyday people live in our society. In history and archaeology we are often left wondering how the non-elites lived, because for the greater part of human history only the elites could read and write thus we only have an elite perspective of ancient societies. So we rely on excavations to find out how people actually lived, we can look at artifacts such as tools and we can suggest what kind of job these people may have had. But now with all these records of everyday people future historians and anthropologists will have an all you can eat buffet of information in front of them to dissect and illuminate their view of our present culture and society.
    Now this leads me to the questions: why might they want to study how everyday people of the early 21st century lived? And with all this information available do you think important issues and facts may get drowned out in a sea of pictures of drunken people and pets in costumes?

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  46. The amount that we can rely on someone telling the truth comes with the amount of trust you have in a person. With trust come truth and with truth comes trust. However I find that there is very little these days you can put under the truth category when it comes to the things you find on the internet especially when it comes to facebook. You never know who is really on the other end of a person’s facebook, if they are really telling the truth or not. Take this case in Estero FL for example two girls set up a facebook account for a girl who did not have. Even thought this case had to do more with bullying it still takes the trust from three people that others may have in them. People that where friends with the two girls who created the facebook lost the trust in their friends when the used the site as a way to hurt someone else. Also if and when the girl who was bullied (Name was not mentioned in the article) decides to use and trust facebook people might not trust that it is really her. In my opinion there is truth out there on the internet. But facebook to me 60/40 way of living you life 60% of the time people are posting what they want people to think about them and the other 40% a person is being themselves, and that only comes with who is the person that is doing the posting. All in all when it comes to social websites and networks its where the extra 10% comes in if you don’t have a 110% of a good feeling of truth then don’t post it. In the end to have truth you have to trust someone , trust they are posting truthful things about and not things that will come back and bite you later in life.
    Article used

    Estero teens arrested for Facebook bullying. (2011, January 13). Retrieved Feb 18, 2011, from RSW Florida News: http://www.nbc-2.com/Global/story.asp?S=13837734

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  47. Facebook can sometimes be a bit scary, especially after reading this post and truly realizing how much information actually shows up on Facebook. Everyone says that you shouldn't post things that you dont want people to see, but at the same time its almost uncontrollable. Especially when people can write on you wall and post things that you have no control over. Although this is a scary realization, Facebook can actually help the future generations to come to learn some valuable occurrences of out time. To answer the question posted: "What specific ways could the profile history give insight into larger cultural/historical events?" it raised a great discussion with me and my younger brother. We basically thought it would be cool to travel into the future and see people's reactions to "wall posts" about events such as 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina. Just by reading the posts and seeing uploaded photos, its almost as though people are reading a page from a history book. Facebook is an amazing way to connect people from different places all over the world, but is it possible that it can be a great way to connect people from different generations and times of life? Simple amazing. Ahh the wonderful world of technology!

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  48. It is scary to think that someone could know everything about you just by going on your profile. Everyone puts all their information about themselves on facebook, not knowing the dangers. You don’t always know who you are friends with on facebook. Just because there is a photo of someone you think you know, does not mean it is that person. Almost anyone can get a photo of anyone and their names, thanks to search engines. This is what makes parents fearful if their children going on search engines like facebook. Also, what makes parents fearful is their child putting up pictures and personal information. Such as where they live and their birthday on their profile. People think it is safe to post information on their profiles because only your friends can see it. However, if one of your friends comment on that post, then any one of their friends can see that post. Posting personal information on your profile is not as safe as you may think. Another safety issue is being tagged in a photo. When you tag a friend in a photo it becomes their photo as well. Now any one of their friends can see that photo and comment on it. If they comment, then any one of their friends can see that photo. So goes the chain. There are countless ways of gaining access to someone’s profile. We all need to be more fearful of what we post on facebook.

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