“The question isn’t, ‘What do we want to know about people?’ its, ‘What do people want to tell about themselves?’” – Mark Zuckerberg

It’s funny that this quote is coming from the founder of Facebook who has been making Facebook’s privacy setting increasingly public. From reading the “Face of Facebook,” this statement seems a little controversial. Facebook has been said to be one of the largest platforms in which people have come out but have they made this choice to come out by force or by choice? From my reading, Facebook can be classified as a bad friend pressuring you to do things you don’t necessarily want to do. If that guy initially did want to admit that he was gay he wouldn’t have went back and change this option on his Facebook page. This is a case where Facebook’s privacy setting has been little but private and where Facebook offers only limited choices. Another scenario is where Facebook was again public in its privacy setting but in this case its boundaries were limitless. Troy Smith was the perpetrator’s Facebook name and this instigator would upload statuses of the utmost absurdity that it turned people’s lives upside down. Smith’s true identity still remains unknown to this day but the danger of his openness was so severe that Facebook had to take matters in its own hands, removing Smith’s page. In these two instances, things were told that people did not want to be told despite the truth behind them. Facebook’s goal is to be open but are the people on Facebook ready for this openness?

– Lindsey Burton