Social Media Websites are Designed to Spill

And when they spill, what they spill is their users. As in, dumped on the sidewalk, dumped in the street. Because what people really want from a social network is dirt on other people. And who better to supply than the individual to be dirted upon?

Now, Facebook and Google+ realize that if you believe that your dirt will be publicized, then you might hold back your dirt. So they go to some length to make you believe that your information is in control. Yes! You control your information! Just move the magic slider or click the magic button, and your dirt will be carefully contained where only your friends and acquaintances out to two degrees of separation will see it.

Ah, so when I spotted this item, I knew I had to make the point here at Vorpal Trade that social media is a complex beast and that it will burn a great many people, such as those who develop it.

Whoops. Google Engineer Accidentally Makes His 'Plus Sucks' Rant Public.

If a Google engineer can't keep his settings straight, then why would all the rest of us be able to?

Software is complex. Unlike physical reality, the landscape in a software application, and especially web-based applications that Google prefers, changes at the whim of the developer. A "user" of the physical world gets used to things: gravity, light, physical obstacles, the need to eat. Adults are experts at knowing how things work. They aren't surprised when rocks are heavy, trees block your view, or wood rots when exposed to water.

But place mortal humans inside the shifting landscape of a social medium, and they aren't quite so capable. And since it is a matter of competitive advantage to continually evolve the social media applications, to add to them and rewrite them to make them more capable, more complex, richer, better, happier and cleverer, it is unlikely that their users will be able to stay on top of the settings changes and small rules they need to master to keep their dirt in the places they last put it.

Even if Facebook and Google+ really do intent to help you keep your dirt straight, the deck is stacked against them. And since they really don't have any incentive to keep your dirt straight, the probability is zero that it will be.

There are defenses against dirt-spilling social media sites. That is a topic for another post later.