2/25/08

Let’s just talk about Facebook since I believe that the success of this website is a great example of a tipping point in an Internet PR campaign.  In 2004, shortly after moving into my dorm at Rider University, there was a little bit of buzz (via word of mouth) about Facebook, so I joined and WHAm every single person I had ever known seemed to join within the next week.  Facebook tipped so quickly and became a main ddestination for all college kids that the creators of Facebook opened the exclusive doors up to high school kids, companies, and eventually every Joe Shmoe with an email account.  Although this seemed to bother many Facebook users, it still has not deferred hardly any to delete there Facebook accounts.

Actually, that brings up a good point.  Let’s talk about deleting Facebook accounts.  Oh yea, it’s not possible.  My sophomore year, college athletes around the country began getting in trouble for pictures posted on Facebook.  Hazing, drinking, drugs, etc.  This prompted my coach to create a Facebook account and check ours regularly for things that may hurt ouf team, school or personal reputation.  Well, since I was not a big fam of my Coach snooping around, I deleted my Facebook account.

Fast forward to this past fall.  My soccer career had ended and I decided it would be okay to create a new Facebook account.  I was a little wary at first because I knew I would look like a loser since I was about to be four years behind the ball and have exactly zero friends.  Anyway, I went ahead and attempted to create a new one with my Rider email account.  Turns out this Facebook message popped up, ‘this email address is already a registered user.  Would you like to reactivate your account?’ hmm okay.  So I reactivated ita nd the creepiest thing happened.  My Facebook page was exactly ‘as is’ from four years ago.  All the pictures and posts and information were still there.

So let’s talk about the creepier side of Facebook and how the creators have huge files somewhere storing all our activated and deactivated account information.

Creeeeeepy.