Big Brother Is Watching the Web

Where is your Cloud Clan badge, Mary? 

-Badge Control 

Mary, 

I agree with the disturbing part. Fascinating, I am not sure, though. Whenever I hear anything about social media scientists my hair goes punk style. The kind of conclusions to what these "scientists" arrive to seem to me more like a joke coming from somone with a little and simple brain than from someone who deserves to be called scientist. 

Needless to say these social media scientists don't have my respect. On the contrary. And I am going to bite my tongue for not telling you what I really think of them. 

So, someone, somewhere will be sitting at a laptop, perhaps watching a brainless TV program at the same time, comparing your social networking activity and Nicole's and hundreds of thousands of others, or maybe just a few and who is going to really check how many, and then come up with something as smart as a thesis written by an oyster. 

Just please, Mary, don't make yourself a fan of Farmville and start sending Farmville updates day and night if you don't want to be reported as a terrorist attempting to humankind's wellbeing. :D 

-Susan 

This may be the case of "Do as I say but not as I do" type of thinking. 

-Susan 

This is disturbing and oddly fascinating. Someone, somewhere, will be sitting at a laptop, perhaps in an airport, comparing my social networking activity to that of Nicole and hundreds of thousands of others? Will "they" be able to define "normal" behavior?

Will anyone really care that I chose to eschew Farmville posts, or send a poke to my neighbor down the road?

If "they" can pick up the odd terrorist, who am I to quibble?

Wow, Paul. Well that is the precise definition of "Big Brother" right there. How the US government can even pretend to preach about "Internet freedom" and still carry out activities like this is beyond me.