Hi:

This is totally off-topic, but somehow I am suddenly getting all these Facebook invitations and I am weighing the merits of establishing a page and suddenly having all this personal info out there. Even if I'm relatively non-disclosing, there would still be all this info about friends, social connections, etc. It seems creepy! Do I really want people I interact with via work to be able to find out all about my friends? Figure out where my kids go to school?

The friend who sent the first invitation (I'm guessing it somehow triggered the others?) says give up, we have no privacy and might as well take advantage of the great aspects of social networking.

What does the panel (YOU) think?

bk1

I use facebook, linked in, and used to use myspace.

Eh. If I knew your name in real life I could google you and I'd probably be able to track you down anyways. Just type in your phone number into google and you'll also see how far technology has come (scary). What's on facebook is only what you put there so you can be as open or closed as you want.

On really off-OT, I find it funny that my wife and I will communicate over facebook all the time... especially when I'm in my office on my computer and she's in the kitchen on hers. I knew facebook was on to something when I (me!) have to yell at my wife to get off the computer.

JB

I completely understand where you are coming from and never used myspace. It was not until the olympics did I sign up for facebook b/c one of my old college friends is an olympic gold medalist so I tracked her down (trust me you are out on the internet without the use of facebook) and she told me to sign up on facebook so we could view pics of the kiddos and keep in touch. So I did and am now addicted. Thanks to facebook, I have found some old friends and vice versa. I will say that facebook has more controls than myspace so only your friends can look at your info if that is what you want. So if you do sign up just watch the links such as when you upload pictures. You can set it where only your friends can see it; friends of friends can view; or anyone.

I regularly google my name and never come up with anything. True to my screen name, I seem to be invisible, just the way I like it.

I got back in touch with a college roomate who said she had attempted several times in the last 10 years to find me with no success.

My screen name, incogneato, however seems to be quite popular. I had no idea so many people had stolen my "identity".

Tragic really, because now I feel I should change it.

Any suggestions?

The poster formerly known as 'Neato?

:p

Nice one Kriston!

Really, I'm pretty open about this sort of thing. To me, it's not much different than a neighbor who may want to snoop on what I do for a living, check out the type of car I drive, etc. I'm not that special. Boring in some (many) ways. So my family and I are pretty anonymous on these social networking (SN) sites unless you know me and want to find me. Most of the SN sites allow you to configure who can see you and your postings. So you can say only your friends see random musing or wall posts.

It is addictive though. Be warned!

JB

It's what my friends and I affectionatly call "crack" book.

It's completely addicting, but I also find it's nice to have a "snapshot" idea of what my friends and family are doing with out having to make a phone call, check a blog, etc. It's all right in front of you.

FYI you can choose to "ignore" someone who requests to be a friend that you don't want to have access to your info. Basically you can block out whoever you want. It is as detailed or vague as you make it.

Just my .02

Jen

I got an account because my friends were talking about it...but never entered any info and forgot all about it until a couple days later when I got an email about someone wanting to "be my friend" I thought it was very strange and had no idea what was going on. But I was glad to discover a friend that I had lost track of. I have been able to get in contact with a bunch of friends this way. And it is nice because now I know little things about my friends that I want to keep touch with, who had babies, who is looking for a job, who is sick, etc. Some of my friends have added lots of stuff and are on it all the time...some are barely ever on, and some are wary and don't even post a picture, but either way it's good and I enjoy it.

Thank you, panel!

Based on your comments, I decided to create an account a few minutes ago. I was somewhat comforted by the fact I could limit access to chosen "friends."

I hope I won't have the spare time to get addicted. It took me more than a week to find the time to log back in here and see everyone's responses!

bk