• Where Is Jiminy Cricket When You Need Him?

  Posted Friday, February 20, 2009 2:34 PM | By Bonnie Goldstein
  
  
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  I don't blame you, Margaret, for feeling misled and misused by Facebook, but the whole thing reminds me a bit of the coachmen of Pleasure Island offering toys and candy while quietly turning Pinocchio and the other wayward boys into donkeys. I think your outrage that its CEO "could make big bucks selling information we volunteer for our own purposes," is a healthy wake-up call. Five years into the social networking phenomenon, its naive beneficiaries are suddenly troubled that young Mr. Zuckerberg is running a business. Along with offering strangely satisfying cupcake images, movie quizzes, free karma, and opportunities to throw sheep or hatch rottweillers, Zuckerberg, without asking for compensation, has created a very valuable forum. Users all over the world put their current Faces forward and entertainingly connect with one another over years and across generations. It seems likely that providing tempting and easily acquired treats must run up expenses and follows inevitably that the clever wunderkind will seek to monetize his principal asset: many millions of members about whom so many useful, voluntarily supplied, tidbits are readily known.  
  Filed under: Facebook, Facebook terms of service, Jiminy Cricket, mark zuckerberg, Pinocchio, Pleasure Island
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