I am desperately waiting for a new social network--one that actually values its customers and the reasons they use social media. Until then, I'm stuck with the nation of Facebook. But it's precisely because of Facebook's arrogance in abusing its customers' privacy that I've had to risk offending a few people in my network recently.
Let me explain. A few months ago, Facebook rolled out facial recognition software and automatically made that option available on all of its customers' profiles--despite any kind of custom privacy levels we had already chosen. Right after that happened, I had a few conversations with some of my local friends (i.e., people I often see in the flesh and not on a screen) about their own preferences in being online. Some don't want to be "Google-able" because of the sensitive nature of their jobs. (There are a lot of those people employed by three-letter agencies in the DC area). Some simply don't want their business known everywhere and don't want to be tagged in photos. And some don't want pictures of their children online.
That made me think through the impact of my choices on their privacy. Because I am an author, speaker, and filmmaker I have chosen to put myself in a more public position, albeit one that barely blips on the celebrity radar screen. When Facebook got started, there wasn't a very good option to separate your personal network from your professional network. As I recall, you could create a fan page and that seemed awkward to me. I couldn't imagine asking someone to become my "fan" instead of my "friend." Eventually, Facebook allowed people to create public pages for their professional efforts. By that point, I already had a jumbled network of people as Facebook friends, some of whom I had never met, some I'd only briefly met, and some whom I really knew and could recognize their names and faces. And my personal updates and pictures of friends and family went out to all of them.
Procrastination won the day for quite some time because I didn't relish having to sort it all out. But after the latest Facebook blunder, I figured I owed it to my flesh-and-blood relationships to do the hard work of paring down my friend network and setting up a public page. I am still in that process. So far, most people have been very gracious about my notice to defriend them and my invitation to join my public page. I am honored by their initial interest in my activities, so I have been slowly writing personal notes to each and every one of them, explaining my reasons. It's a lot of work, but I hope it minimizes any offense. In the end, I'm sure that most people will find what I post on my public page a lot more relevant than the latest pictures of a cookout, kids playing or something else equally mundane in the course of life.
Having a Facebook public page also means that this blog will continue to be the place where I write longer entries. But my public page is likely to be updated more often with quick links and items of interest. I invite you to join that page if you want to be updated more than once every week to ten days -- or whenever I have a thought longer than 400 characters.
Oh, and while I'm explaining my views about online networking, let me also clarify that my Twitter account is primarily about film news and updates. So if you want to know more about the world of Citygate Films, please feel free to follow that. But it might bore you if you're not a hardcore film person. I'm also on LinkedIn, but not very active. Since that is a professional network, I really am selective about connections there. I will only accept links to people I have worked with or know fairly well.
Social media has so many implications for our relationships -- how we use it, when we use it, how it is read, etc. I'd like to hear more from you all how you process these decisions and what biblical concepts have shaped your use of it.
Have you ever used lists of friends? I think your method sounds far more permanent and professional, but for me it has worked well to group my friends into "friend lists" and then designating the default for my updates and photos as only going to my "close buds", "family", and "old friends" lists. Everyone else is "other" and doesn't see much past my basic info. Admire you for your kindness in writing to them all personally!
Posted by: JDimmick | June 12, 2011 at 05:58 PM
This is such a fun topic for me! As a web developer, I integrate facebook into websites and know the "ins" and "outs" of the database. (Yes, it is a database.) I belong to an online group of developers that I like to find loopholes in Facebook's code. I do have a personal account too and use it quite frequently. In short, I love to hate Facebook and acknowledge what I'm about to say is a little hypocritical.
When you think about Facebook, think about giving someone a bit of information that you have limited control over what they'll do with it. Pictures for example. If you are able to get the url for your facebook picture. Not the one at the top of your browser, the picture has a url by itself. You will be able to view that picture when you are logged off Facebook. Furthermore, if you delete, that photo, it may disappear from your feed. However, that photo url will still be valid. It usually takes 2 months for a photo to be deleted from Facebook. Now that you have a glimpse how you don't have control over the information you put into Facebook, think about how you use that information. I usually tell my co-workers to put information on Facebook that they would only be comfortable hearing at a Christmas dinner (without the family fight!). We'll often don't know who would be in someone's "friend's" list. Boss, pastor, mother, grandmother. We often put "inside jokes" type content that may be done in jest, but can embarrassing if your grandmother/mother/pastor found out. If it doesn't pass the Christmas dinner test, it doesn't belong on Facebook.
I know this is a long rant. Facebook has a lot of good qualities and usefulness. I have connected with many high school friends I would have lost touch with otherwise. Despite its usefulness, we have to remember that we limited control over the information on our Facebook account. So, have fun, put chose your content wisely.
Posted by: Michelle | June 12, 2011 at 09:08 PM
I don't have a Facebook account, so I can't comment there. You asked about summer reading--I recommend Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. It isn't a light "beach book" and you may have read it already, but it's excellent.
Posted by: KS | June 13, 2011 at 07:50 PM
I love the incredible ministry opportunities facebook has provided. I got to lead a girl to Christ not long ago over facebook chat. There are so many ways to use it as a ministry and I praise God for how He is using it to change lives and give a ministry outlet to stay at home moms.
http://www.beholdingglory.com/1/post/2011/06/facebook-ministry.html
Posted by: Laura | July 02, 2011 at 09:22 AM