Checkmate

It's been 9 years since Facebook launched in 2004.

Over that time, Facebook has cited itself at a gathered number of 1.06 billion users.

Some will say this summoning of the global village is a good thing.

I'm going to say it's bad.

As a social tool, Facebook is great. You can stalk keep in touch with your friends, stalk check out what your employees are doing, stalk check out where your friends are going on vacations and, more importantly, for all of the parents out there you can stalk keep an eye on your children.

And did I mention you can stalk keep in touch with people?

Here's a cool thing to say to non-social media users:

"If you don't want Facebook because you think it's bad, then don't have it."

Well, according to Facebook, 1/3 of the Internet-using world (and 1/2 of America) has a Facebook page, and according to their growth statistics, they have no intention of slowing down. This means that for every 1/3 of your real-world friends that have access to Internet, there's a chance they'll say, "Hey, check out my photos from vacation last week... Wait, you can't do that because you don't have a social media profile? Well, sign up for one!" Peer pressure. 1/3 of a world is a lot of pressure to hold back.

Another problem with not having a social media account is that at this point in time, they're almost required.

Do you want to apply to a new job that has anything closely related to social media? You'd better be able to use social media (usually Facebook).
Some jobs even require their employees to be linked in with Facebook.

Now, I can completely see how social media is a great utility for the world to get connected. In fact, I'll say it's a requirement for humanity to continue its rapid growth, but Wikipedia is a great utility, and it's lacking something that most social media outlets have... advertisements.

Facebook has even started placing advertisements in its newsfeed based upon what people have previously posted! Here's something my brother sent to me the other day:

I recently posted about my brother's new children's book on Facebook. A day or two later, he sends me a message asking if I sponsored his book.
Facebook used my post as an advertisement for his book, and I didn't even have a choice to opt-in or out of it!

Imagine if I had shared a link to something that could potentially damage my reputation if it were shown as an ad.

Now, of course there are more options out there than Facebook, and each platform has its own functions; but unless you want to set up your own social media platform like Elgg, you're stuck with a choice that has other users and, y'know, is actually social.