I eschew Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and most "social media" because I am not ready to surrender my privacy to soulless corporations.   As just one example, just about every major web page you visit has a web bug on it that tells Facebook you're visiting there - they can track you even if you're not a member, and I find that behavior outrageous.  Right now, nobody will know if you simply read a post on DCHAS's web site or email list.  If you go to one of these platforms, your every move is logged, tracked, analyzed, and used to profile you.   I value my (relative) anonymity; other than posts to this list, I don't leave crumbs and tidbits on the Internet for marketers or worse (I had the pleasure of my own personal sociopath from years ago).  Facebook's and others' hidden bugs are mapped in my computer's .hosts file so they don't phone home.

I agree that such platforms can be useful.  But there's an old joke that ends "sir, we've already determined what your wife is, now we're just haggling over the price."  And, sadly, very few people realize exactly what price they have paid by signing up for these services.

This one is my favorite. It's not social media, but very much in the same vein: http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml

Call me paranoid, or buy me a tinfoil hat, but I can say with absolute certainty than any discussion group on one of those platforms won't have me as a member.

Rob Toreki

PS: DCHAS-L does have a digest version so you receive only one email per day that contains all of the day's posts.  Send an email to Ralph if you want to sign up for that.