A few thoughts on social networking
I have a love/hate relationship with social networking. On one hand, I’ve reconnected with people I knew long ago from my hometown. I’ve even gotten to visit a few of them when I’ve traveled for ALA or other conferences. It’s been great to have a network of people available to offer sympathy or advice. It’s a great way to collect cartoons and humorous photos (if you’re on Facebook, and you’re not following George Takei, please rectify that asap).
For awhile, I was keeping Facebook neutral and using my Twitter account for my snarky comments, but even after I locked it down, it eventually dawned on me that it was inappropriate for me (due to my position, for one) to vent about work matters, even among a select group. And that venting about non-work matters was just as ridiculous.
The “this day in history” feature that Facebook launches before the advent of the timeline made me revisit my thoughts about privacy and what we choose to share. I had to spend a little time during my December holiday week going through and deleting or suppressing various things on Facebook that I had already done once anyway. It’s very disconcerting to see references to the ex-husband pop up. Especially after you thought you’d already cleaned up the online stuff. I made some tough decisions, and I came through 110% better than ever before. However, I just don’t want to see that three or four years ago I mentioned him in postings. Isn’t it my timeline? Or did posting about my life on Facebook end up resulting in it not being my timeline anymore?
posted by Beth @ 7:15 AM
5 Comments
5 Comments:
It was hard for me to start sharing in the first place, as I'm intensely private.
I like the new Facebook Timeline format, it's so much easier to access past activity and tweak sharing settings. It almost gets me over my long-time dislike of Facebook's poor implementation and lack of privacy...
I know what you mean, I sure don't need a snapshot of exactly what was going on in my life at all times. I haven't engaged with the Facebook Timeline yet but some things need to stay in their own context and not reappear just because they can!
I understand the love/hate relationship with Facebook. I love visiting online with my college friends and former co-workers and keeping tabs on a few of my younger relatives, but it does drain free time.
You bring up a current concern of many. In the UK, "the right to be forgotten" legislation has been proposed that would allow people to demand that organizations that hold their data delete that data, as long as there is no legitimate grounds to hold it. See: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/eu-proposes-a-right-to-be-forgotten.ars
I really should go back and clean up my Facebook timeline. I don't spend as much time on there now so I keep putting it off but I do recall randomly posting updates without much thought about people reading them years later.
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