Auto-sharing[0] [1] just seems like an obviously terrible idea. For both the privacy implications and the signal-to-noise ratio. Separating the streams into high-signal deliberate sharing and low-signal 'ambient' sharing is interesting, but seems kind of fiddly/inelegant.
An obviously better way to do it is to auto-share into a private queue that you can then go through and approve for sharing into specific lists/circles. Maybe that's a bit too fiddly, though, and probably too cognitively expensive. I suppose it also creates an update bunching effect, where your updates come in bursts instead of a steady stream.
Either way, passive auto-sharing just seems like it makes embarassing situations too easy.
It also sometimes seems to me like Facebook is actively and deliberately trying to make human communication/interaction as reductive as possible.
[Edit: I think there's another angle to this that's kind of quietly subversive in a pervasive way: If auto-sharing of your various web activity is on by default, then you might have some low-level filter on your actions, because you're always a little bit afraid that everyone can see what you're doing. We all start to behave as if we're living in a pan-panopticon (everyone is watching everyone else).]
An obviously better way to do it is to auto-share into a private queue that you can then go through and approve for sharing into specific lists/circles. Maybe that's a bit too fiddly, though, and probably too cognitively expensive. I suppose it also creates an update bunching effect, where your updates come in bursts instead of a steady stream.
Either way, passive auto-sharing just seems like it makes embarassing situations too easy.
It also sometimes seems to me like Facebook is actively and deliberately trying to make human communication/interaction as reductive as possible.
[Edit: I think there's another angle to this that's kind of quietly subversive in a pervasive way: If auto-sharing of your various web activity is on by default, then you might have some low-level filter on your actions, because you're always a little bit afraid that everyone can see what you're doing. We all start to behave as if we're living in a pan-panopticon (everyone is watching everyone else).]
[0]: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/read_in_facebook_social...
[1]: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3028328