I've just been thinking about all the people who criticise Facebook. Thinking back about the stories my Dad and my Grandparents told me. Facebook is just new like many of the new things that emerged in the past to help us communicate.
Among my Pop's things from WWI is a postcard from a chap based in England to Pop's Parents - Sarah & Arthur, just a short one line 'Saw Ray & Charlie the other day, both okay' ... would have taken 8 weeks for that postcard to reach Australia. However that postcards was to let Pop's parents know that his brothers Ray & Charlie who were serving in the Australian Army during WWI had survived a major battle (the name of which escapes me at the moment). But to think the news of the Battle would have made it back to Australia long before the postcard letting my Great Grandparents know that their sons were okay is hard to contemplate - simply waiting months to know if your sons are okay. Because of Facebook - I could keep in touch with my son while he was in Afghanistan. Not every day and not all the details of what was happening there, but at least some contact.
When Televisions first became available in Australia they were the cause of a massive argument between my parents. The Catholic church had deemed Television evil. Dad came home to find my Mum had purchased one, Dad took it back to the store. Mum went back and bought it again. Finally Dad succumbed and let her keep it - probably found out they were going to Televise the cricket so decided it couldn't be that evil after all.
When Dad was working in the courts as a Security Officers for Corrective Services - after he'd retired from his full time role with the Department, he was in a court room in Sydney while a young Barrister was putting court dates into his Blackberry. Dad was in his early 70's at this stage. He commented to the young Barrister that when he was young there was a new invention that would revolutionise the world. The young Barrister replied with 'What was that, the typewriter?", Dad said "No young fellow, the Biro'.
Since the Biro we've had electronic typewriters, computers, mobile phones etc etc etc - and just like all these the evil that can emanate from their use is the human factor. They are all mediums of communication, their benefits or risks are ALL determined by those who use them, NOT the technology itself.
I am grateful for Facebook for many reasons. My friends, my family, my causes/passions, because it breaks down social isolation and MOST importantly of all it has broken the control of information flow by Governments and media. We should never take the Freedom that Facebook has given us for granted.
