Google... Evil?

Is Google evil? Probably, especially according to this article on the BBC today.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/seealso/2010/02/tech_view_google_and.html

My argument has nothing to do with the Italian Court's ruling that Google is liable for the content posted by users on Youtube, but it does bring up an issue that's been bothering me.

Is Google to powerful?

I watched its superbowl commercial to "awws" and "shucks, ain't that cute" from the audience.  Isn't it nice to have a company that can let you stalk French girls from all the way across the Atlantic ocean?  And more importantly, a company that knows who your stalking at what time and where in the world your stalking from?

Google has turned harmless internet infatuation into a disturbing corporate past time.  As recently as a year ago, Google began monitoring my Google account's web history without my permission.  Luckily, I found this out and turned off the service.  But, why does a massive multimedia monolith need to know how often I Google myself at work?

I can't answer that without being irrational, but maybe a governing body greater than mine should be watching over this massive company, held accountable by only its share holders. 

Let me be more blunt, someone should be watching over Google.  I'm not sure what they're up to with my credit card and porn habits.

Tweet-less

Why do professional athletes have twitter accounts? It’s not like any of them can write well enough to merit reading one. I know these people, particularly professional basketball and football players, earned a higher education based on their ability to make a ball go through a hoop and assault opposing players in a violent fashion. So, why don’t any of them use it in a constructive manner? I have to sit through various one hundred and forty character assaults on the English language telling me:

“just picked up some turntables... trying to get my dj on.”
-Miles Austin, Cowboys Wide Receiver

That didn’t make anyone’s life any better. That was a poorly punctuated waste of megabytes. It would be nice if any of these gentlemen could use their immense wealth to help people in a way that wasn’t mandated by the NFL or seemed insincere.

But wait, there’s more!

“Feeling good...better yet great...chilllllan”
-Cody Brown Arizona Cardinals Linebacker

I’m glad I found out this man can’t spell Chilean. Maybe, what they say about football causing brain damage is true.

Professional athletes should leave their communication skills on the field, as most of their tweets are better suited for trash talking, and instead use their free time for better enhancing the lives of the less fortunate.

Old Folks on Facebook

Old people… You need to get off facebook.

Seriously. That’s my generation’s. This is how we rebel, by taking lewd pictures of ourselves and ruining our professional lives. Modern life is complicated, and facebook is a place where we can hide and assert our own identities. How would you like it if your parents started dropping acid and having guilt-free sex on the pill? You’d stop having all that fun because it wouldn’t be rebellion. Being young is about finding an identity different from your parents. That’s what disco was about. Remember? If you can… all those drugs you snorted in the Eighties might have affected something. You’ve already found your identity (Disco) and now you’re old and boring. I’m sorry, but it happens to all of us. I know you’re sad you couldn’t stay young forever. It’s not your fault. It’s only natural, like SARS or the Hanta Virus. It’s time for you to grow old gracefully by chain smoking, drinking heavily on weekdays and being overtly racist, like your parents. They wouldn’t have been the greatest generation if they didn’t know how to party.

Yay! More illiteracy!

According to this article from the BBC's technology section:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8497427.stm

More teenagers find it inconvenient to blog. I don't necessarily mind this as most teen-aged blogs are poorly conceived and poorly written. However, I was most troubled by this article when one of the interviewees was quoted, "people don't find reading that fun." What the hell does that mean? When did this "Y" generation get so damn illiterate? Perhaps, I'm over reacting, but reading has been instrumental to the transfer of knowledge from one generation to the next through human history. China was a random collection of angry tribes until they invented the written word. Now, they're America's largest creditor. If only modern teenagers could see what reading can do for one's own personal success. Unfortunately, I don't think that's possible until they get a few more years experience. I can only hope that's sooner rather than later.