Why is Everything Connected to Facebook?
I was listening to music at work on Songza. I clicked through many different song lists such as Halloween music and Kids music. During lunch break, I went on Facebook and realized that all songs that I’ve listened to were shared on news feed. It’s not a big deal letting others know what songs I’ve listened to. Rather, I find the fact that not being aware of my activities were transparent to everyone disturbing. Sometimes when I read articles on Yahoo!, they were automatically shared on Facebook. Honestly, I wouldn’t want to share with people of everything that I’ve read. If I found the articles interesting to share with others, I would be more than happy to share. Randomly posting activities on my behalf is quite annoying. Because of these automated sharing features, I always log off Facebook before visiting any of those sites.
It might help businesses to increase online awareness if its activities have more exposure in social media. In fact, I found out about Songza through news feeds on Facebook. It’s not that I mind a lot about sharing my offline activities with others, but it’s the fact that I feel forced to be consent with sharing—If you don’t agree to the terms and conditions before using the app, you can’t use it.
It’s a trend that more and more businesses employ automatic sharing features. These features enhance communication and connectivity of the online community. However, from a users’ perspective, I would appreciate it a lot if I have the option to choose when to share.