Great entry! I also think Facebook's creepiness comes from the "personalness" of it. If you're on Facebook, you've created a profile, ostensibly with photos and personal details, and links to other people. You have contributed to this and invested energy in it. It feels like YOURS. To be reminded that you are nothing but a product of data to be bought and sold (and sold to) feels more like an invasion, even though you've abetted the process.
Excellent, original observation and hypothesis. I'd add that to the creepy factor in Facebook's control of our news feed. Google isn't deciding what conversations you or your friends hear, and while Amazon makes product recommendations--products are a lot different than, say, politics. Most of us have enough direct experience with the Facebook algorithm by now to see that it tends to present feed items that stir us toward anger and outrage. (I think there's a Star Trek episode reference in here somewhere but don't have time to Google it.)
Great entry! I also think Facebook's creepiness comes from the "personalness" of it. If you're on Facebook, you've created a profile, ostensibly with photos and personal details, and links to other people. You have contributed to this and invested energy in it. It feels like YOURS. To be reminded that you are nothing but a product of data to be bought and sold (and sold to) feels more like an invasion, even though you've abetted the process.
Excellent, original observation and hypothesis. I'd add that to the creepy factor in Facebook's control of our news feed. Google isn't deciding what conversations you or your friends hear, and while Amazon makes product recommendations--products are a lot different than, say, politics. Most of us have enough direct experience with the Facebook algorithm by now to see that it tends to present feed items that stir us toward anger and outrage. (I think there's a Star Trek episode reference in here somewhere but don't have time to Google it.)