Creepy Facebook asks to read users' text messages...

Over the last month or so, a few keen-eyed Android users may have been startled by some peculiar permission requests when they tried to update their Facebook app.

One request asks to “read your text messages (SMS or MMS).”That’s not exactly the kind of language users are likely to find reassuring, especially after recent allegations that Facebook has been scanning private messages within the social network.

So, Facebook is currently on a PR offensive to calm user fears. “We realize that some of these permissions sound scary,” writes Facebook. “So we’d like to provide more info about how we use them … If you add a phone number to your account, this allows us to confirm your phone number automatically by finding the confirmation code that we send via text message.

”Make of those assurances what you will, and you can read more about the other permissions here. Indeed, as one Reddit user point out, Facebook has been asking for these SMS permissions for quite some time...

http://m.fastcompany.com/3025589/fast-feed/why-is-facebooks-app-asking-to-read-your-text-messages

Facebook Is About to Lose 80% of Its Users: Princeton Researchers

Social media is like a disease that spreads, and then dies Facebook’s growth will eventually come to a quick end, much like an infectious disease that spreads rapidly and suddenly dies, say Princeton researchers who are using diseases to model the life cycles of social media. 

Time.com

Instagram is even more depressing than Facebook

It's a truism that Facebook is the many-headed frenemy, the great underminer. We know this because science tells us so.The Human-Computer Institute atCarnegie Mellon has found that your "passive consumption" of your friends' feeds and your own "broadcasts to wider audiences" on Facebook correlate with feelings of loneliness and even depression.Earlier this year, two German universities showed that "passive following" on Facebook triggers states of envy and resentment in many users, with vacation photos standing out as a prime trigger.

http://m.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/instagram-is-even-more-depressing-than-facebook-20130724-2qink.html

Why you should deactivate Facebook

'Facebook has become a dark hole – a place where jealousy and competition breed, where self-worth is defined by a catalogue of carefully tagged pictures and an overall productivity time-suck'

In today's world, not having Facebook is akin to leprosy. Surely something must be wrong with you if you have no social account to show for your life. How will people follow your achievements, your relationships or your weight gain without a social presence to stalk?The existential crisis of the 21st century has become: "If something happens and you don't put it on Facebook, did it ever happen?" Joking aside, it's true many of us feel that Facebook is the be-all and end-all of socialising; that having no social network is the same as having no friends.AdvertisementBut what our connected world has not taken into account are the several ways in which Facebook can harm our lives, instead of enhancing them. Sure, you can reconnect with lost friends and family, find job opportunities and keep a digital log of your life. But more commonly Facebook has become a dark hole – a place where jealousy and competition breed, where self-worth is defined by a catalogue of carefully tagged pictures and an overall productivity time-suck.Ultimately, we risk comparing our everyday lives to our online personas, which are often overwhelmingly composed of curated success stories and positive experiences.... more