A Slap in the Face of Facebook

It is interesting to hear that Facebook is really nowhere near as exclusive as most people assume it is. Although most facebook purists scoff at myspace's universal acceptance policy (and sigh as facebook slowly imitates it), there is little disparity between the two. Recently, facebook has made moves that will allow basically anyone free access to facebook in which case there is no disparity whatsoever. The only difference is that people on facebook operate under the assumption that there is more privacy than myspace and that the only people who are granted access to their profiles are college students. This is certainly not the case. Myspace members are at least aware that their profiles are being scattered wholesale on the sidewalks of Stalker City, which is why they have little cause for alarm when they hear that an employer or faculty member has viewed it. More and more often I hear of stories where some sort of disciplinary action is founded upon evidence taken from facebook. Some universities, apparently, are pushing for a Facebook task force to hunt down these people more efficiently and report any questionable behavior posted on facebook. This, however, is a little out of hand. But do these people have any right to complain? Not really, considering that both facebook and myspace have the same built-in privacy settings. I am not what you would call a "facebook veteran" which might be the only reason why I'm able to take this cynical approach. People who have been in the trenches for longer may feel like facebook's privacy is crucial for keeping its social networks intact and must be restored in order to maintain its integrity. The only thing I have to say to these people is, "Umm... seriously?"