This is why facebook and myspace are bad for you (but good for the people who run it).

In an article written by Josh Quittner for
TIME about the Keynote presentation by Mark Zuckerberg, founder of
Facebook, he explains how the social networking company hopes to (and
is currently) generate ad revenue by using users (you) activities!

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“Sharing” here refers to the new features that Facebook unveiled
this week in its redesigned user profile pages which make it even
easier for me to broadcast the stuff I like. “News feeds” (a Facebook
term I’ve always found vaguely offensive since it trivializes actual
news) are now simpler to manage. When you read a “story” on your news
feed and find out a friend has just really enjoyed a Big Mac, you can
comment on it (”OMG! Me too!!!”), right in the feed. And
FacebookConnect, which will start showing up on finer websites and
blogs everywhere in the fall, is an ID system that let’s you log into
places — for commenting, say, or Digging stories — with your Facebook
ID.

All of this makes it easy to publish and discuss all the things you
do, the books you read, the clothes you bought, the movies you saw, on
Facebook and off. All these things you “share” help connect you to your
friends, yes, but more importantly, they connect you, TO ADVERTISERS.
That’s not a bad thing, necessarily. But you need to be aware of it.

Advertising is the essence of Facebook’s business, it’s the great
and shining hope of that company and social media in general. Maybe
even all media. But so far, it’s not exactly justifying valuations.
There’s been loads of investment coming in, but not much real,
sustainable revenue coming out. That’s why the company is working so
hard to add all new sharing/connecting/movement features: To make
advertising work the way it should on a social network.”

Read the entire article from TIME here.