21-Feb-2012 14:34

Are You Making Someone Else Very Wealthy Indeed?

As most reading this blog online are only too aware, Social Networking sites abound…

Overall, the undoubted winner, both in user-numbers, turnover and profits, is Facebook, with Twitter the peoples’ champion in the ‘instant news and fast updates’ category. Linkedin remains a popular business network & job-searching site and Google+, which appears to be the social network we all join & then wonder what the heck we are doing there and what to do on it next.., is desperately trying to get a foothold on that auspicious ladder.

There appears to be a fresh-faced challenger on the block now too, Pinterest, a visual network where members share images & feelings & thoughts, apparently still mainly the fairer sex, on a virtual pin-board.

However, have you ever stopped to consider why & how, you & I, are so willing to provide information, give away so much personal data & post private musings for free?

Would you provide all this info if you were randomly stopped in the street by a chap with a survey board, moustache & questionnaire?

Would you tell an unknown individual your innermost thoughts & then allow him, or even support him, to publicise this worldwide?

So why do you/ we/ I /all of us give away masses of private information about yourself, your friends & your interests on Facebook, your personal pictures on Flickr, your novel ideas & even more pictures on the new Pinterest & then, possibly if you can be bothered, copy/paste the same stuff straight onto your Google+ page(s)?

….and all the while the contented owners of these websites & Social Networking companies sit comfortably in their armchairs softly rubbing their hands with glee, because the content, your content, my content, our content & all those tens of thousands of anonymous contributions makes them increasingly prosperous - not you, nor me, nor indeed any of us!

Ever thought about it?

Hmmm…….