Forget Me Not

Scientists announce that it may be possible to "forget" bad things that happen to us. Turns out a beta-blocker, used to treat heart conditions, may also have an unforeseen effect of diminishing the negative emotional reactions felt when confronted with a bad past memory.

Check out the article here.

Implications? Of course there are. The first is what does this mean for us emotionally? Does everyone have things they'd rather forget? Sure. But don't those experiences and memories make us who we are and teach us things about life? Clearly more research will be done in using these drugs for secondary purposes, but maybe the first question to ask is should we be doing this at all...

In marketing news, the big thing today is Facebook and their Terms of Service. Ay, ay, ay! What are you doing Facebook?! Check out this brief synopsis from the Consumerist.

Here it is folks: The reason everyone is shitting their pants over the future. It used to be all one had to do was protect their SSN#. Now, as our lives increasingly move online, people can find out anything about us they want. The counterintuitive aspect of Facebook's new TOS is that it is designed to be a place to share about yourself with friends. Who the hell wants to do that when anything you put up there (original content created by you I might add, which brings up a whole other interesting legal twist) no longer belongs to you? It seems simpler to me to have the TOS read: When your account shuts down of your own volition, we erase any record of you having been a member of Facebook. What will that information help them do anyways? It can't help them advertise to you because you're not there. In fact it would screw up their stats. Would Facebook really have any interest in posting my response to a comment and pork and blogs? Probably not, but they shouldn't have the ability to do it.

The basic issue is this: Facebook is now treating its customers like content creators rather than partners. Turns out, we will do what we want when we want to (remember MySpace?). I come to Facebook to connect with friends, not serve as a breeding ground for banner ads. Keep sending me the bald guy ads, but leave my status alone for perpetuity.