This is Omar’s blog

Since I cut my number of friends in half a while back, my news feed is a lot quieter and I find i’m using it less and less. In any case, I only really use it to stay in touch with a few people, most of whom I speak through other means (?!) any way. The question is, is it really worth it? I find myself, feeling I need to use it and there are now a few people who I seem to to speak to solely through Facebook.

It is important to remember that sites like Facebook are pieces of software that we can choose to use or not use, just like we choose to use Firefox or Safari or neither. There is a perception that we are obligated to use social network sites like Facebook or MySpace because our friends start using them, and if we don’t, we will functionally lose the friends who do - every important announcement, party invite, and funny video will be locked away from us. This is a very dangerous way to think! Joining and being a part of Facebook is absolutely not an inevitability. If a piece of social software causes people who do not choose to use it to become ostracized, there is a serious flaw in that piece of software.

I think it is important to note that Facebook, though they claim to be a tool for staying connected, is actually a software tool designed *primarily* to deliver marketing messages to its audience.

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This Greasemonkey (a Mozilla Firefox extension that allows users to install scripts that make on-the-fly changes to most HTML-based web pages) script makes Facebook usable. Imagine all those apps gone, from your news feed, mini-feed. Nice and simple :)

I like him. It’s more serious then it seems…