"Places online where you can expect privacy: Facebook"
I'd rather be spied upon by NSA any day over Facebook. Atleast then I know how my information is being used. But oh right, NSA doesn't have a website where you can show off your socio economic status.
Rather make a petition to stop people with no real technological skillsets glorifying themselves as "hacker" every chance they get. Be it on HN, their own blogs or facebook.
Making wordpress themes isn't hacking, no matter how hard you want to ride the web 2.0 train.
> I don't think many realize what they've sacrificed because they value it so little.
Exactly. Also, most people don't tend to question authority figures. That's what facebook has become for web 2.0 or whatever you want to call it, it's the thing that got most people to use internet actively as a part of their everyday lives.
How can anyone in this day and age seriously write an article like this, when programming is cooler than it ever was. Wherever I look related to tech nowadays, it's always a very social, well spoken and trimmed young man in his late twenties. All the Googles and Facebooks pride themselves on their laidback, social and party attitude. People don't IRC or use handles anymore, instead, it's linkedin and facebook, showing off your social standing.
If this was written ten years ago, I might understand, but now, clueless.
If anything, it's harder than ever to be an introvert.
I'm exactly in the same boat as you and this really stresses me out. With WhatsApp I finally felt like I could stay in touch with people easily and "casually" without being on Facebook, it has became a big part of my daily routines.
From the FB comments:
"Jamil Elie Bou Kheir
hello from hacker news. thoughtful article! i think it's not the mere intelligence, beauty, or wealth…"
Caused me to cringe, now not only calling yourself a hacker is a commodity, but if you can't stretch that far, just declaring that you read hacker news gains you status?
Not pretending like this site is an exclusive club, but c'mon.
Great, another meaningless blog trying to gather views with nonsense gender equality bullshit. Is there an easier subject on internet nowadays to stir something up?
And people still seriously think that taking anonymity away from the internet is a good thing.
I don't know what sickens me more, the american legal system or modern internet filled with people that have absolutely no understand of privacy because of their sheltered lives.
"One explanation for this could be money laundering."
Reminds me of something a few months or so back (in 4chan/g/) when Samsung had some sort of a campaign that gave it's users free android market credits. I don't remember how you had to authenticate yourself, but it was easy to fabricate and people did it multiple times over. As a result, people made really bare android apps to buy from themselves to turn that credit into real money.
My father got me a subscription for a computer magazine (finnish Mikrobitti) as a part of it you got an email account some space on their servers /~username/ and a 56k modem connection. He helped me do some fiddling around on Frontpage Express and I made websites with oh-so-cool flame gifs and 3D text banners.
I had a huge stack of random 386 and 486 hardware that was brought home from flea markets and such after recession, which I used for my first Win95 "servers" (only running apache)
He was a construction worker and a taxi driver, but had an interest in technology. He's always been very supportive of my nerdy ways, even though my knowledge quickly surpassed his.
I used to be very fascinated by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_Aitken_Waterman a group that produced many of 80's pop hits and didn't think that there would be a "more modern" equivalent that could stand up to them.
I'd rather be spied upon by NSA any day over Facebook. Atleast then I know how my information is being used. But oh right, NSA doesn't have a website where you can show off your socio economic status.