I joined Facebook years ago, waaaaay back in 2007 or 2008 in my role as a high-tech goods and services lawyer.  Hardly anyone was on it then and it seemed…simpler.  More peaceful.  Now that everybody and their Mama is on Facebook (including, incidentally, my Mama), Facebook has unashamedly picked up the pace in terms of chipping away at the walls of privacy that it built in order to persuade us to join in the first place.

Nowadays it seems like there is a new scandal involving Facebook on a weekly basis.  Their privacy policies are cryptic and full of holes, virtually impossible for the average user to navigate.  And increasingly the medium is becoming commercialized.  You only have to be halfway paying attention to notice the little tricks that have slowly been creeping into your Facebook experience that encourage you to grow your network (Hey! Aunt Marge suggests you become friends with her grocery store bag boy!) or provide third-party application providers with your personal information (Of course you can set up your family tree! All you need to do is grant this random, unidentified app provider access to your profile!).

Any yet, Facebook recently surpassed Google as the most visited site in the United States.  There’s no questioning that it has revolutionized the way we communicate with our family, friends and co-workers.  It’s easy to use (but for those pesky privacy settings), it’s fun to use, and it’s addictive.  So clearly they’re doing something right.  And even though I know all to well the privacy concerns and security issues that Facebook presents to users, I have yet to take my profile down.  Checking my News Feed and my Wall has become a part of my daily routine.

Because, after all, even though I may know better…I’m human.  And that means I need to update my status every 11 minutes. It’s only natural.