Just got this notice from Facebook: “You currently automatically import content from your website or blog into your Facebook notes. Starting November 22nd, this feature will no longer be available…”

This bears close scrutiny, and loud protest, both because it is the craven and selfish move of a monopolist mentality, but moreover because it makes the Facebook community duller, more parochial, and more carefully controlled. This is facebook saying, you are MY EXCLUSIVE AUDIENCE.  Do Not Stray! RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!  Et cetera…

What facebook dreads are posts which entice you, the visitor, to click out of their wire-enclosed playground. What they prefer are “partner sites” where, as you click, you never actually leave the compound. It’s an aquarium, people.

Well, I am here to tell you that there is a whole other universe of internet sites out there to explore and join. Spending hour after hour browsing facebook is the web equivalent of always eating at MacDonald’s: it boring, and ultimately bad for you; fatal even. Today, why don’t you make a pact with yourself and go visit Google Plus, Tumblr, WordPress, Twitter, or even DiasporaAlpha? Create a new web presence for yourself, or at the very least revisit a social network that you used to enjoy, and devote extra time to it today. Craft something NEW in an unexpected place and way,  AND THEN TELL ALL YOUR FACEBOOK FRIENDS!  Encourage them to go take a look at it…

Take a stroll beyond the wire today…  beyond the limits of the compound…  It’s a beautiful day out there, people.