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5 votes
In Jim Sheridan's 2009 film Brothers, Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire play two siblings that are opposites. Maguire's Sam is an Army captain, a straight-laced hard worker, and a family man. Gyllenhaal's Tommy is a fresh-out-of-jail convict, a general screw-up, and someone who doesn't seem to care anyone but himself. But then everything changes (and I'm not giving anything away that isn't in the trailer). Sam goes off the deep-end and becomes the erratic one, while Tommy morphs into the hard-working family man. The only commonality the two share is Natalie Portman's Grace, Sam's wife who Tommy falls in love with.
In the tech world, Facebook is Sam, Twitter is Tommy, and Grace is all of us, the Internet users. Facebook and Twitter both want us, and we're watching them morph before our eyes.
Convoluted metaphor aside, what I'm trying to say is that Twitter and Facebook are becoming more like one another. I think this obvious fact is getting lost in the latest Facebook privacy debacle. Just imagine if Facebook had been more like Twitter from the start -- which is to say, open (with your data). We wouldn't be having this privacy debate right now. Sure, you could argue that Facebook would never have grown to a network of nearly 500 million users. But Twitter is already at 100 million (and counting) built on top of its public sharing model.
In the tech world, Facebook is Sam, Twitter is Tommy, and Grace is all of us, the Internet users. Facebook and Twitter both want us, and we're watching them morph before our eyes.
Convoluted metaphor aside, what I'm trying to say is that Twitter and Facebook are becoming more like one another. I think this obvious fact is getting lost in the latest Facebook privacy debacle. Just imagine if Facebook had been more like Twitter from the start -- which is to say, open (with your data). We wouldn't be having this privacy debate right now. Sure, you could argue that Facebook would never have grown to a network of nearly 500 million users. But Twitter is already at 100 million (and counting) built on top of its public sharing model.