[bigbugbag]

> Facebook is as real as any other social network.

This has been proven otherwise.

> If you're my friend or love interest, why are you making it more difficult for me to contact you?

exactly! why do you force me to register an account on a known privacy invader website that don't respect its words nor its users to get in touch with you ?

>One of the most pathetic things people do on-line is putting a fake birthday into Facebook to see who actually remembers the real date.

The people I know who do that are doing it just because they don't want to give away their real birth date. This is sensitive info.

[TeMPOraL]

> This has been proven otherwise.

[citation needed]. Seriously, what exactly is so different about Facebook? As far as I can tell, it's the usual generational whining about "technology destroying social relations", that was repeated by every generation since invention of newspapers.

> exactly! why do you force me to register an account on a known privacy invader website that don't respect its words nor its users to get in touch with you ?

The OP phrased his comment in a way that implied you are the one burdening your loved ones on purpose, and this was what I responded to.

> The people I know who do that are doing it just because they don't want to give away their real birth date. This is sensitive info.

Birthdays are absolutely not sensitive info (regardless of legal definition); if you're thinking that, you're fooling yourself. Like name, address, sex, and bank account number, they're public info. Usernames, not passwords. You've probably left all of those multiple times this year to random untrusted third parties.

[bigbugbag]

>[citation needed]. Seriously, what exactly is so different about Facebook? As far as I can tell, it's the usual generational whining about "technology destroying social relations", that was repeated by every generation since invention of newspapers.

This is not wikipedia. just use a search engine, talk to people who closed their or got removed from facebook, go to the library to get books on the subject, get in a horrible accident and count how many facebook contacts are on your bedside when you wake up, get convicted and thrown in jail and see how many facebook contacts will be visiting you regularly for 10 years.

I fail to understand how exactly it is news: party friends are not true friends, drug friends are not true friends, facebook contacts are not true friends either.

> The OP phrased his comment in a way that implied you are the one burdening your loved ones on purpose, and this was what I responded to.

And I phrased mine to show that your counter argument works both ways, except facebook is preventing outside people from getting in touch with inside people, not the other way around.

>Birthdays are absolutely not sensitive info (regardless of legal definition); if you're thinking that, you're fooling yourself. Like name, address, sex, and bank account number, they're public info. Usernames, not passwords. You've probably left all of those multiple times this year to random untrusted third parties.

People who do not put heir real birth date may think that, on the other I know that it is a sensitive information for I have personal experience with its exploitation. You may have confused a few concept here, data that is public can also be sensitive, see social engineering. But let's just give you a random innocent example: girl has crush on boy, stalks his facebook for birth date, find out his astrology sign, renounces for astrocompatibility bs. Boy unknowingly missed opportunity to explore bases.

[TeMPOraL]

> This is not wikipedia.

This is Hacker News. I actually expect higher standards of this place.

> I fail to understand how exactly it is news: party friends are not true friends, drug friends are not true friends, facebook contacts are not true friends either.

You seem to believe that "Facebook network" and "real life network" are distinct networks. They're not. Usually there are only few points when they don't overlap - because in reality, you have one social network and Facebook is a convenient tool to manage it. So yes, I if I get into an accident or get thrown into a jail I expect a lot of my Facebook friends, who are also real-life friends, to show up. Hell, I expect many more to come than without Facebook, because there really is no other widespread way of keeping many people updated about each other's day-to-day life.

> And I phrased mine to show that your counter argument works both ways, except facebook is preventing outside people from getting in touch with inside people, not the other way around.

I accept that it works both ways. In most discussions, people actually bring up only the side from your counter, completely forgetting about the one I wanted to remind OP about.

> You may have confused a few concept here, data that is public can also be sensitive, see social engineering.

Part of the problem of social engineering is that people treat "public but sensitive data" as anything but public. If I know your birthday or address or bank account number, it doesn't prove anything about my relationship to you. People who ignore it end up becoming victims of social engineering attacks. I think it's a part of basic security training to make them understand that this data is to be assumed public knowledge.

> a random innocent example: girl has crush on boy, stalks his facebook for birth date, find out his astrology sign, renounces for astrocompatibility bs. Boy unknowingly missed opportunity to explore bases.

Well, so what? Things like these happen all the time with any random things. She may have overheard his birth date in a conversation. Or maybe he put a fake date and she thought it's true and gave up even though both were astrocompatibile and believed in the BS. It's easy to invent such examples to prove just about any point.

[bigbugbag]

As there is a current high profile story illustrating the issue of the effect of social media on teen, here are some of the requested citation: http://www.letsbegamechangers.com/ and www.zmonline.com/photos/zm-photos/instagram-celeb-reveals-the-ugly-reality-behind-her-social-media-presence/

> You seem to believe that "Facebook network" and "real life network" are distinct networks. They're not. Extraordinary claims requires extraordinary evidence. Having a look in a teen's facebook versus his/her real life should be enough to see by yourself the reality is not what you claim. But I'll rather introduce you to Robin Dunbar and the Dunbar Number: "orry, Facebook friends: Our brains can't keep up["1] and "The Limits of Friendship"[2]

> In most discussions, people actually bring up only the side from your counter, completely forgetting about the one I wanted to remind OP about.

And there is a reason for that, which is simply that facebook added an artificial barrier between people as tool to force people to register to facebook. The wall of the so called walled garden.

> Part of the problem of social engineering is that people treat "public but sensitive data" as anything but public.

Ok, it seems I have failed to express myself correctly and my simple and innocent example failed to get through. Allow me to reformulate: - A birth date is personal data, for it is indeed related to a specific person. -Personal data is sensitive data. - That's it, there's nothing more to it.

I suppose you live in a place and time too far away from the last attempt at rounding people for mass killing and attempted extermination to remember how important and sensitive personal data is.

I guess those who fail to remember history are doomed to relive it.

[1]: http://www.cnet.com/news/sorry-facebook-friends-our-brains-c... [2]: http://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/social-medi...