Aphelion

Well, I'll never know the answer, because I refuse to join any of those things -- for the exact reasons you've illustrated. And, in the case of Face***k, the additional joy of finding out that, no matter what level of privacy you thought you were getting, every keystroke on their site was being sold on the open market. How do you think their founder got so rich?

There is one benefit . . . you'll never be targeted by brain-hungry zombies. Just post a reply in kind to one or two of those posts; something like, "Hey, my car runs on gas!" That should do it. We won't tell anyone.

I predicted this kind of thing, some years ago, when blogging started to become a big craze. See, once upon a time, knowing how to operate a computer meant that you might have something interesting to say . . . 'Social media' have simply given anyone with a few hundred bucks the ability to post the equivalent of 'Dear Diary' entries -- and that's just what they're doing.

I just wish so many of 'em weren't doing it from their driver's seats.