Facebook Ruined Christmas?

There’s been a lot of chatter in recent years about forces arrayed against Christmas. Bill O’Reilly famously called it a war. So who’s Santa’s newest enemy? Facebook. According to a front page article in the Washington Post, the social networking site ruined Sean Lane’s Christmas when it broadcast his recent diamond ring purchase to hundreds of classmates, friends, and coworkers---not to mention the ring’s intended recipient, his wife.

So Lane did something about it. He railed against Facebook’s new feature called Beacon, which alerts your entire network to recent purchases. He got 50,000 people to sign a petition telling the site to stop publicizing what they bought. And as Facebook often seems to do, it responded. Now, Beacon won’t broadcast purchases unless you click “ok.”

And I say, Thank God. I don’t need the whole world knowing how much Diet Coke and Chunky soup I’m consuming these days.