Around town: Facebook: you have been warned

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Published Thursday, December 4, 2008 4:09 AM PST
Commentary
Around town:
Facebook: you have been warned.
By Anita Susan Brenner

This just in. Crank up your computer. Or cellphone. Go immediately to www.facebook.com. www.facebook.com. Sign up for a free account.

That’s where you’ll find me.

Me and my online persona. We’ll be “there” on Facebook, despite the unintended consequences of the Valley Sun’s Tower of Tuna project.

I brought it on myself.

To clarify, the Anonymous Source and others are building a tower of canned tuna in the Valley Sun offices, located at 1061 Valley Sun Lane, La Cañada , CA 91011. Office hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information call (818) 790-8774. The tuna will be donated to the North Hollywood Interfaith Food Pantry, which provides groceries to over 4,000 needy families each month.

To further clarify, Facebook is an online networking system created by some Harvard students four years ago. Initially, access was denied to all but the last of the text-based elite, I mean college students. A couple of years ago, Facebook opened its (virtual) doors to everyone.

Even soccer moms like me.

I got so excited about building La Cañada’s Largest Tower of Tuna that I decided to advertise it on Facebook. To be fair to all concerned, I also included the La Cañada Community Center’s Run for the Hungry canned food drive.

In the process, I ran afoul of the Facebook terms of agreement. Here is my sad, sad story:

My first (virtual) stop was Kathy Christie Hernandez’ Facebook group. Kathy is a mom, a La Cañada resident, a Web programmer and a Stanford grad. Her Facebook group is called “You know you’re an adult in La Cañada Flintridge when ”

Kathy’s group seemed like a logical place to start. La Cañada’s Largest Tower of Tuna and the La Cañada Community Center’s Run for the Hungry canned food drive fit the theme of Kathy’s Facebook group, which consists of lists of how one knows one is an adult in the 91011, e.g. “You and your neighbors can’t agree on whether LCF is rural or suburban You can’t believe you need to cross the street to get your mail You’ve marched in at least one Fiesta Days parade ” and so forth.

I began by posting links to La Cañada’s Largest Tower of Tuna and the La Cañada Community Center’s Run for the Hungry canned food drive on Kathy’s Facebook group. It was as if I was spray-painting (virtual) graffiti, but with a socially important goal of feeding the hungry.

In response to the question (“You know you’re an adult in La Cañada Flintridge when ”), I wrote, “You http://www.runforthehungry.com/ on Turkey Day” and “You bring one can of tuna to the Valley Sun Offices.”

So far, so good.

But then, I began to re-post the identical comments on related groups. Groups like “La Cañada Flintridge Parents” and “Pete Seeger for Nobel Peace Prize.” That’s when Facebook sent me the embarrassing notice: “Dear Anita Susan Brenner. Your ability to post has been temporarily disabled This is a warning. If you persist, we will disable your account.”

Naturally, I googled the phrase “Facebook. Disable.” I discovered that people who create accounts in the names of a cow, dog or a library can also have their accounts disabled.

The solution? I turned off the computer. Einstein is my middle name.

Not.




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ANITA SUSAN BRENNER is a longtime La Cañada Flintridge resident and an attorney with Law Offices of Torres and Brenner in Pasadena. E-mail her at anitasusan.brenner@yahoo.com.

La Cañada Valley Sun: La Cañada Flintridge, California