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There's this from USA TODAY Facebook uses tracking cookies to see what websites we visit.

Then there's  this from from the AP, showing yet again that one of the wonderful aspects of social media is all the perverts and idiots usie it to annoy, or worse

And I'll throw in this from our tech guy Nick Delorenzo about the inevitability of joining the online social network.

Having corporations track my web use is the most irritating. I don't mind them doing it with my sayso, but I should certainly have the right to tell them no. Having giant conglomerates track my web use is very much like having someone stalk you and write notes about eveyrwhere you go  - which, incidentally, you can let people do through apps available to your gps-equipped smart phones.

Having spammers use Facebook or other social media sites as a back door into my life is akin to, well, having vandals or crooks use the back door into my house.

But as Nick notes, we can no longer stay out of the online social web.

The question is, how much will we shape the network, and how much will the network shape us - or at least, try to. 

Old fogies like me aren't the issue; kids growing up immersed in this are. Embracing this technology isn't the problem, It's a fabulous tool. Being able to get out of it's embrace increasingly is.

About this Blog

My column is neither beat or subject specific, and has ranged from whimsical to hard news. Since I'm primarily an education reporter and a native of the Hazleton area, those often draw my focus.

About the Author

A West Hazleton native, I worked as a service technician repairing electronic mailing and shipping systems, a bike shop owner and an Emergency Medical Technician (among other jobs) before landing a reporter job at the Times Leader Hazleton Bureau in 1995. I started by covering primarily politics in Hazleton City and outlying municipalities, eventually became "social issues" team leader in the Wilkes-Barre office with the accent on education, and headed the Hazleton Bureau for a spell before returning to full-time reporting, my preferred position. I'm an avid cyclist and rode across the country in 1990, a trip of more than 5,000 miles from New Jersey to Seattle and down the coast to San Francisco. Years in the Boy Scouts made me a life long backpacker and camper, and I've yet to find a better way to enjoy the quiet lure of winter snow than cross country skiing.

Mark also writes a regular blog for timesleader.com.

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