When I joined Facebook in 2004, it became the place where I was my best self, not my real self; where I curated a life that seemed like one big success, fantastic party and exotic vacation after another. So did you (be honest), and so did your friends. While we might have felt guilty checking up on each other, the voyeurism was enticing enough to attract 900 million people and keep us glued to Facebook.com for hours each month.

These days, my life according to Facebook looks less fabulous and more consumption-filled than ever before. We’re encouraged to share not only engagements, birthdays, deaths and births, but also, right alongside them, the equivalent of each time we flip through a catalog or pick up a pair of socks.

Having a record of what sales I browsed or what purchases I’ve made — precisely what Gilt Groupe will share with Facebook if you allow it to — doesn’t benefit my social media experience nearly as much as it helps a retailer’s.

We’re in the midst of a Jekyll-and-Hyde moment in the evolution of online social networks: sharing that will get us to shop is taking precedence over sharing that can strengthen social ties. We’re made to share our business because it’s good for business. And this suggests a looming identity crisis for “social media” that, more and more, appears to be “marketing media,” a tech-fueled hunt for ways to leverage our friendships, interests and activity to produce a “ching” at the register.

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Great post from HuffPost Tech’s Bianca Bosker on what e-commerce means in an age of super sharing.

Facebook, Gilt Flashed My Granny Panties: Why That’s A Problem

(via huffingtonpost)

shortformblog:

Because the WSJ is brilliant: This widget allows you to track Mark Zuckerberg’s wealth in real time. Get to tracking, nerds. (Second, non-widgetized try; the WSJ’s widget no likely Tumblr)

futurejournalismproject:

Facebook Buys Instagram for a Reported $1 Billion

That’s billion, with a ‘b’, in cash and stock.

Via Mark Zuckerberg:

[I]n order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram’s strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook.

That’s why we’re committed to building and growing Instagram independently. Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people.