I have been invited to join Facebook. By a close, personal friend. (Not all those distant, communal friends I have.) Someone with whom I would like to be in greater contact and is not great at replying to e-mails. (Something about a 17-month old and buying a house and moving and other lame excuses.) The problem is I don't do Facebook. I don't really know that much about it, I don't know how to use it, and I don't want to start. As far as I can determine it's a cross-between a directory and a scrapbook. I don't care about directories and I don't keep scrapbooks. If I did, I don't know why I would want it exposed to the world. Frankly, I'd close this blog if I thought anyone other than people I've told about it ever visited. I don't even like that it shows up when you do a Google Blog Search. Censoring for group consumption and interest is one thing, censoring for total public publication is another.
Getting back on track, I'm torn between possibly being better-connected with a good friend and being more publicly exposed than I like. What to do?
6 comments:
I'm not a huge fan of Facebook either, but I use it because it's the best way I've found to get back in touch with people I've met in all the different places I've lived and from all the various "phases" of my life: my high school phase, my mission phase, my BYU phase, and now my GSU phase. I do not believe that friendships should end just because one has to move away. That said, most of my Facebook friends and I rarely communicate. That's OK, because at least I know where I can reach them if I need to. Plus, I think it's neat to watch people progress in their personal/family lives: getting married, having kids, starting new jobs, etc.
That said, I really only use Facebook to manage contacts and occasionally update my "status," which is kind of fun. I don't get into all the silly games and things there - there's just no time for that. For those who really want to know more about me, I have the link to our family site prominently displayed in my profile.
Which gets me to my next point: privacy. Facebook has a large array of privacy options. If you're the type who doesn't care if the whole world knows everything about you, you can make your profile completely open. But if not (and I assume most people fall into this category), you can require that only your specifically approved friends can see anything about you. So while Facebook is a directory of sorts, it's one where you exercise ultimate authority about who gets to see how much of you. Just like life, but online. :)
In any case, no amount of talking about it is going to sway you one way or another, I think. Just like one can only talk about swimming so much before you just have to feet wet to discover what it's really like. And I'm saying that it's a really useful (and secure, and private) tool that doesn't have to become an obsession if you don't want it to be.
Not a fan of facebook. I like to think of it as a instant messenger rather than a phone. I don't care if you do it or not just so you know. NO PRESSURE. Now about blogging. If you go to your settings tab to the basic option there is something called search engines from google-just select no and then it won't let people find you on a search. SIMPLE. You may thank me later.
And I WILL thank you later. Thank you!
My solution? Get it, don't use it.
I'm on Facebook. I don't really use it - for me, it's there if I need to contact someone, but that's about it. I definitely understand your hesitation! :)
As a software engineer, my take is this: no way on earth.
Honey, Facebook's "privacy"--not so much. And identity theft has happened there too. Be very, very careful about what you post on line, and stay far away from those social networking sites.
You don't need them to communicate. They tend to lead to spending too much time online, and they're a very strong security issue.
So...just no.
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