Facepalmbook

Facebook recently added a new security application to its site - Facebook Protect, which is apparently designed to frustrate users and make things generally annoying.

I got an e-mail alerting me of Facebook Protect and how I needed to activate a couple of weeks ago.  I ignored because I decided that I didn't need it.  It turns out it was not optional; it was required.  Yesterday morning, Facebook locked my account and told me that I needed an application, a security key, or a texted code to open it.  Well, I don't have a phone that can hold apps, I would have to order a security key for my PC, and my flip phone was broken and needed to be replaced so I couldn't receive a text.  And when I tried to use my mother's cell phone as a stopgap, I didn't get a text back - seemed our carrier wasn't among the carriers Facebook uses to send texts!

Without any means to unlock my account, I felt certain I was locked out until I could order a security key, but in desperation, I tried my mother's cell phone again - apparently, I misread the list of carriers you can get Facebook texts from, and we are covered after all.  I got a text with a code and successfully unlocked my account, and I replaced my mother's cell phone number with my own in my Facebook settings after I got a new cell phone yesterday after noon.

Seeing how close I came to having to buy an expensive security key, though, made me realize how much Mark Zuckerberg, the Sugar Mountain Man (that's what I call him because "sugar mountain" is what his surname means in German) will do to control our lives.  He's made Facebook so necessary for many of us that he's making us go through hell and high water to use it.  I've connected with everyone from top '80s models to long-lost relatives and everyone in between, and it's those valuable connections that are keeping me from deleting my account altogether.   

Oh yeah, it was ten months ago yesterday that Facebook banned links to two of my blogs because they were regarded as spam, and I haven't been able to get the ban lifted since.