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Former Facebook Employee Questions the Social Media Life

Posted by samzenpus on from the none-of-us-are-as-lame-as-all-of-us dept.

stevegee58 writes "The Washington Post published an interesting article about Facebook's employee #51, Katherine Losse. As an English major from Johns Hopkins, Losse wasn't the typical Facebook employee. But after starting in customer service, she later became Mark Zuckerberg's personal ghostwriter, penning blog posts in his name. The article traces Losse's growing disillusionment with social networking in general and Facebook in particular. After cashing out some FB stock, Losse resigned and moved to a rural West Texas town to get away from technology and focus on writing."

6 of 171 comments (clear)

  1. Fakebook by roman_mir · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I knew that FB had fake accounts, but apparently it also has fake Zuckerberg and more importantly a fake market valuation and probably a fake business model.

    --
    You can't handle the truth.
  2. What has the Internet become? by evanism · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What a horror. She saw the light, as did I.

    After 17 years of building, learning and promoting I now realise just how awful it has now become. I have left the industry entirely.

    Facebook is not a product of Zuckerberg, but a reflection of the inevitability that horrendous and highly penetrative technological processes will have on our lives.

    People haven't asked for Big Brother, they demanded him.

    --
    Just bought a new quantum computer, but I'm uncertain how it works.
    1. Re:What has the Internet become? by tomhath · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No, it started because people wanted other people to know what they were doing. "Look at me, I'm important."

      It is an efficient way to communicate, basically a kiosk. But when the host becomes too intrusive the convenience is outweighted by the cost.

    2. Re:What has the Internet become? by tverbeek · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'd follow her example... if only I had company stock to turn into cash. Unfortunately I'm one of the tech people who got tired of the web without first getting rich from it.

      --
      http://alternatives.rzero.com/
  3. Registration Sucks Almost as Bad as Facebook by garcia · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But her concerns continue to grow. When Zuckerberg, apparently sensing this, said to Losse, âoeI donâ(TM)t know if I trust you,â she decided she needed to either be entirely committed to Facebook or leave. She soon sold some of her vested stock. She wonâ(TM)t say how much; they provided enough of a financial boon for her to go a couple of years without a salary, though not enough to stop working altogether, as some former colleagues have.

    And that's the end of the story because the Washington Post won't let me read the rest.

    So, if I understand this correctly, she got rich and decided working wasn't for her and she wanted to chase every writer's dream to lock themselves away in some far off locale to write their lifetime novel?

    How is this news? Because it deals with the side of Facebook everyone knows about but ignores so they can post photos of their kids and let other people tell them how cute they are or is there something I missed in the last two pages?

  4. Re:Sounds like by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well, and it's easy to look down your nose at the masses when you've already made a boatload of cash and can afford a nice, remote place somewhere to just go unplug, ruminate, and write. :p

    I'd like to move to a tropical island and do heady things. But as it turns out, I'm here in my condo, bs'ing about the mars lander on facebook, waiting for monday morning.