How do expatriates manage without facebook

Social tools have taken such an importance in our daily life that it seems almost impossible to live without facebook, Youtube, twitter and the like. But such tools are not unanimously welcome around the world and some countries are actively engaged in hampering their use, which they consider a danger for political stability, moral code or religion. How do expatriates manage to live without Facebook when, as it's the case in China and other countries, the access to the website is forbidden?

The predicament is highly publicized in China, where the governement, in it's so called fight against pornography, has forbidden access to Facebook and Youtube and wherefrom Google is threatening to withdraw in face of numerous attemps to damage it's users' privacy. It is a matter of importance for expatriates who are large scale users of internet to connect with relatives and friends home and access to pluralistic sources of information. It is found inacceptable by our teenagers who sees the situation as a legimate ground to refuse an expatriation with their parents in China.

Such a situation is not specific to China. Other countries, such as Iran or the United Arab Emirates, also exert a tight control of the web. (Open net initiatives, an institution created by Harvard, is editing regular reports on how free access to the web is being secured or hampered in various areas of the globe.)

How do expatriates manage to live without Facebook?  The answer is that they don't even try to. They actually search and find solutions to access the site by other means.

Web afficionados have indeed rapidly figured out ways to beat the obstacles and are increasing using devices refered to as Virtual Personal Network (VPN) to access their favorite websites.

VPNs enable the user to tunnel a way to a servor which is located in a country with no restriction to the net. From this servor the user crypts his information and send them whis an anoymous IP adress to prevent monitoring. Those VPNS, according to an article from the New York Times are getting very popular, with softwares by Open terrace (freedur), Anchor free (Hotspot Shield)...

If your children don't want to come along to China. You can tell them that you should find a way to access Facebook.