Facebook and other social-networking sites subsist on information, though not just any information. These sites have an insatiable appetite for the intimate details of their users’ lives. In fact, your personal information is a sine qua non for social-networking sites on two levels: 1.) People, primarily, use the Web to learn about the people and things they care about (like you). 2.) The same information that draws people to your profile, is useful in targeting advertisements to both you and your visitors.
Because these sites feed on personal information, they develop strategies to elicit such information from users. For example, you may have to register and build a profile before accessing content. The result as a sort of pay-to-play system where information is the common currency. And, in order for this information economy to grow and intensify, it must continuously solicit new information and make more of the existing content public. more...