Facebook infestation hits New Zealand beaches

Facebook has taken over from Sharks as the slow news summer shock horror story. The Sunday Star Times reprinted curmudgeonly Tom Hodkinson’s rant from the Guardian, changing its’ title from ‘With friends like these…’ to the much more measured “Why Facebook is EVIL!”.

Reading the SST front page story I learned Sophie Elliot’s boomer era father doesn’t understand the internet as well as his late daughter, and felt sad a reporter rang a still grieving family for quotes to support their angle. Reading Tom Hodkinson’s rant, I learned that shadowy far right libertarians are mining the worlds’ friendships for profit, and felt a sneaking admiration.

Facebook can be annoying with its vampire games and people you hardly know sending you *HUGS!*, but evil? Really? Peter Griffin beats down Hodkinson’s rant here, but I’m more concerned that both Fairfax Sundays featured front page stories from social networking sites this week – that just seems lazy to me. Along with Bebo, Facebook’s an easy (and unimaginative) source for reporters to find victim’s background, without even leaving the office (or browser) – just the thing for slow news summer.

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