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Too Quick to Dismiss Facebook

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Mr. Lockwood,

I just got done reading your article from this week on Facebook. First off I'd like to say it was a very enjoyable read. But I do "disagree" with some of your opinions on the Facebook fad.

The general idea that Facebook is used as advertising for money hungry companies and as a tool for the federal government to monitor its citizens, as well people around the world for that matter is most definitely dead on. But what can you expect? A bunch of wild folks from the Middle East crashed a plane into the tallest buildings in just about the most important city in our country (the most important in my opinion!), if not the world. What else is one to do when they get hurt other than try to nervously gather information from whatever source they can (even from their own citizens) in order to find a solution to prevent horrible catastrophes like 9/11 from occurring again.

I believe that with our growing population today it has made it harder and harder for people to stay together, communicate, and be united. And I think you might say "well that is no excuse, we have cell phones, the email, and the United States Postal Service (among many other things) that has been keeping people connected for quite some many years now. But the fact is, Facebook is the most well organized Internet community created yet. Yes, it's got a lot of hang-ups: too many advertisements, pointless applications, and the government obviously monitoring the hell out of it. But it is lightning-fast communication, and because the creators of Facebook have chosen to not profit thoroughly from their creation, it probably wont be around for much longer. And if they do decide to charge their users for it, they will have no users. Everything should be fair and balanced.

I just believe that it is the way it is, and we should maybe use wonderful tools of communication while we have them and they are free, if we want. It's most definitely a catch 22.

Editor's Note: Forbes puts Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's net worth at $1.5 billion which is entirely derived from his Internet enterprise.