Thing 20

Dude. Facebook is FREAKING ME OUT.

I don't want all my personal information posted on the internets! I mean, it's there, one can find out just about anything about me by looking my name up on some website that I can't remember (I was horrified when I saw it), but even that didn't have a PHOTO. But now I'm supposed to put one up, along with all that other info, of my own free will? Not on your Network.

I don't want Facebook to mine my email address book to find me 'friends,' (of course, they promise not to keep that access to my email account and spam all my buddies using my name, like Grouply.com does) and I seriously don't want them managing my credit card information!

The thing about LiveJournal is that nobody I come in contact with uses their real name or posts any but the vaguest personal info in their profile. There's a reason for that. Nobody wants random strangers to know who they are! You can get to know people by reading their journals and go on from there; it happens all the time. I met some of my best friends through listserves (back in the dawn of time) and LJ.

Heaven only knows what I would have done without the woman who offered advice about helping my mom . . . the woman who turned out not only to have extensive personal experience dealing with sick parents/doctors/hospitals and is a lawyer, but also is an elder law specialist who writes books for accountants about financial planning for the elderly, and handbooks on Medicare.

Now that's effective social networking.

And I didn't have to make an avatar, post my photo, my real name, my phone number, my workplace, my life history.

I would consider continuing to do this for work if . . . well, even if I limited myself to work-oriented groups, every Friend of somebody who's in X group, even if Friend is not a member of X group, can see my profile. It's all about making it easy for people to find you online.