From reading Hacker News over the last few months, I’ve noticed a steadily growing backlash against Facebook. In particular, the new privacy settings, and the actions of CEO Mark Zuckerberg seem to be causing a stir (at least among the technorati.. FB’s user numbers don’t seem to be dramatically affected!)
Interestingly, Josh Harris predicted this backlash way back at the earliest days of the Internet, with a series of live-streamed experiments documenting how people deal with the reality of having every aspect of their lives displayed to the world. ‘We Live In Public’ documents two of these experiments: one a large scale, big-brother style deal, and another on a far more personal scale. Watching these experiments is often uncomfortable, but results are weirdly prescient, especially with the anti-facebook league in mind.
The movie’s directed by Ondi Timoner (Dig) and won the main documentary prize at Sundance 2009. I thought it was great – shocking in parts, but always entertaining, and one of those stories that you’ll be surprised you never heard before.
Trailer:
References:
‘Hacker News’ item about deleting Facebook Accounts
Diaspora: developing an alternative to Facebook
Jason Calcanis on Mark Zuckerberg (he also gathers some recent anti-Facebook stories)
Facebook User numbers
Josh Harris on Wikipedia
imdb We Live In Public
imdb Dig
Sundance 2009 Winners
Play.com: ‘We Live In Public’ on DVD
Paddy Corry's Blog 