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franceslievensSome Summers ago I caved and made an account under my real life name on that other popular social networking service. At first I only had some family and RL friends on there, but quickly throes* of colleagues found me and added me as a "friend". I didn't really mind and started making good use of the groups to ensure some people can't view everything I post online. And like on LJ, I'm very much aware of Facebook being a public place. I won't post a thing about school, I will never ever link to this space.
In fact I have two internet personas, both are the real me, but under different names. There's Frances, and there's Facebook-me. Frances is my public online face, as it were. I use the name to be able to blog pseudonymously and leave comments on other blogs, without compromising my real name and making it googleable. I'm a school teacher. My pupils vary between the ages of 6 and 12. Their parents know how to use the internet and if they're anything like P. and I, they will use it. I wouldn't want them to find out about certain reading and writing habits I have, but I still want to be able to talk publicly. So the pseudonym protects my privacy**.
My Facebook persona on the other hand, talks about things I'd talk about in the teacher's lounge at school. I also link to opinions or interesting stuff I've read, and I can talk to certain friends who don't feel like reading my LJ. There is some overlap between LJ and Facebook, but it's minimal. Unlike LJ, my Facebook profile is completely shielded off from the casual passer-by. Until this week, when Facebook announced to me that they would link certain information they had of me (my hometown, my interests, tv series I like to watch) to pages. "Take into account," it said, "that these pages are public and if you don't link to the pages, we simply delete the information from your profile page." Which I promptly did.
My real name doesn't need to give away the television series I watch, or the fact that I enjoy to sing. People that are my "friends" will be able to guess this from what I link and write. I don't give that much information on LJ either, but LJ doesn't yap about it. Facebook on the other hand wishes to sell every scrap of information that I possibly might have made public – perhaps only because I clicked "okay" out of habit. I wanted to give up on it.
And then I thought that maybe twitter was the next move, and that it might indeed be time to give up on Facebook. But then again the trouble starts, because which persona would twitter? RL-me wouldn't twitter, at least not publicly. Frances would, but how do I share Frances' tweets with my Facebook-friends without them finding out about that other on line life? So I stay and wonder, never feeling quite at ease with the inner workings of that other social networking service.
*Figuratively speaking of course. I still only have about 50 "friends".
**As long as I don't become this hotshot big blogger everyone is reading.
In fact I have two internet personas, both are the real me, but under different names. There's Frances, and there's Facebook-me. Frances is my public online face, as it were. I use the name to be able to blog pseudonymously and leave comments on other blogs, without compromising my real name and making it googleable. I'm a school teacher. My pupils vary between the ages of 6 and 12. Their parents know how to use the internet and if they're anything like P. and I, they will use it. I wouldn't want them to find out about certain reading and writing habits I have, but I still want to be able to talk publicly. So the pseudonym protects my privacy**.
My Facebook persona on the other hand, talks about things I'd talk about in the teacher's lounge at school. I also link to opinions or interesting stuff I've read, and I can talk to certain friends who don't feel like reading my LJ. There is some overlap between LJ and Facebook, but it's minimal. Unlike LJ, my Facebook profile is completely shielded off from the casual passer-by. Until this week, when Facebook announced to me that they would link certain information they had of me (my hometown, my interests, tv series I like to watch) to pages. "Take into account," it said, "that these pages are public and if you don't link to the pages, we simply delete the information from your profile page." Which I promptly did.
My real name doesn't need to give away the television series I watch, or the fact that I enjoy to sing. People that are my "friends" will be able to guess this from what I link and write. I don't give that much information on LJ either, but LJ doesn't yap about it. Facebook on the other hand wishes to sell every scrap of information that I possibly might have made public – perhaps only because I clicked "okay" out of habit. I wanted to give up on it.
And then I thought that maybe twitter was the next move, and that it might indeed be time to give up on Facebook. But then again the trouble starts, because which persona would twitter? RL-me wouldn't twitter, at least not publicly. Frances would, but how do I share Frances' tweets with my Facebook-friends without them finding out about that other on line life? So I stay and wonder, never feeling quite at ease with the inner workings of that other social networking service.
*Figuratively speaking of course. I still only have about 50 "friends".
**As long as I don't become this hotshot big blogger everyone is reading.
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no subject
Date: 2010-05-04 10:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-05 07:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-04 11:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-05 07:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-05 04:20 pm (UTC)I'm still debating going your route and putting my real name out there on facebook - and trying to keep it separate from this place here, but facebook is moving towards more and more evil, becoming this data-collecting kraken and I don't want to be a part of that. On the other hand, there are people on there who I'd like to (re-)connect with.
(I don't want a google-mail account for similar reasons, but there it's more clear-cut, because it doesn't have advantages for me.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-05 07:15 pm (UTC)I do have a gmail-account as Frances, which I use to send all the online junk to. I also use Picasa as Frances, but you've probably already noticed that. I have a disused gmail-account under my own name. And one I use for a certain school-related purpose... But I only have the one email I use frequently, and that's not gmail.