To my many friends who think I’m a miserable luddite and a crack-pot for refusing to join the Facebook generation,  I would like to submit the following:

Facebook on Thursday began asking certain popular users to upload photos of their government issued identification cards to help the social network test a new accounts verification service.

Now, I would not dream of suggesting that the fathers of social media could be up to no good; but think about the trajectory of gradual reveals we have been subjected to over the past few years.  

We’ve learned of identity theft, data mining, accidental data sharing and access denial.  And now this.

After each unpleasant surprise, we get ourselves up, dust ourselves off and start all over again, with “version X.0” which, we are assured, “will fix all previous issues.”

It’s all good; because, to hear people talk, Facebook and it’s truncated step-child Twitter, have become absolutely essential components of twenty-first century living.  

Apparently, no one can run a business, have a career, or enjoy any decent relationships  without an active virtual presence in social media.  

Of course, Facebook claims that once the user’s identity is verified through a screen-shot of a government issued ID, the virtual record will be deleted, but that requires an inordinate amount of trust on the part of the user; and how many times have we been told that nothing is ever completely expunged from the internet.  

In fact the whole argument for the scheme sounds rather less than convincing.

“This update makes it even easier for subscribers to find and keep up with journalists, celebrities and other public figures they want to connect to,” Facebook said in its statement to TPM, although it is unclear exactly how verifying accounts will do this, unless Facebook posts a “Verified” badge or other mark on their accounts, a la Twitter and Google Plus.

But Facebook has not given any indication it intends to do this, raising the question of what good “verifying” an account will do for subscribers

It’s unlikely that anyone will put up much of a fuss as this experimental “feature” gradually morphs into a basic requirement for all users. In 2012, most users couldn’t bear to be parted from their virtual selves.

But how would our 1990 selves have regarded a future in which, like sheep, everyone would be herded into one big virtual corral and conditioned to surrender their trust to the whims of an anonymous controller?  

I think I actually saw that episode of the Twilight Zone and it didn’t have a happy ending.