My Facebook About-Face

To Facebook or not to Facebook.....that has been the burning question.

If you had asked me 48 hours ago I would have said "Not for me."
How things change...but let's go back a few months.

I've been aware of Facebook for awhile, I've just never been interested.
The whole idea of lost friends finding you and making a new network of friends....
Let's face it, sometimes there is a reason lost friends are lost and old friends are old.
As for making new friends? I can hardly keep up with the ones I have, as well, I figured no one I knew was using it (how wrong I was)!

Earlier this year my 14 yr old signed up for Facebook.
I was not impressed....too much of his personal info was out there for all to read.
So I signed up for a popular parent evening at a local school:

Facebook 101 by Chris Vollum

Check out these articles to read all about him:
http://www.simcoe.com/article/135158
http://www.barrieadvance.com/barrieadvance/article/136888

His emphasis is on understanding Facebook and putting securities in place.
I was shocked to see what you can access if you haven't secured or locked down your privacy settings. There are young people out there who are putting everything and I mean 'everything' out there for public viewing. Are you aware that colleges and universities are checking Facebook sites to see if a potential scholarship candidate is 'scholarship material'? A women at my evening workshop was in HR and her company checks Facebook sites before hiring new employees.

So, dubbed by my son 'the paranoid security freak', I sat down at the computer with him and 'locked him down'. At least he was locked down, who knows what he's opened up....

To add to my social networking concerns (or paranoia), I kept coming across articles like this:
http://www.sync-blog.com/sync/2009/07/how-to-delete-not-deactivate-your-facebook-account.html
The song Hotel California came to mind....
You can check out any time you like but you can never leave!

Facebook....not for me!

And then it happened....I went to a dinner party with a group of my University friends.
I haven't heard from most of them for a while and for the last few months I figured they have all been too busy with family, work and life.
Too busy to send emails or to phone. Too busy to send photos of their children and their travels.
Their email - voice mail - phone call silence was easy to explain.
Or so I thought.....

They aren't busy!
THEY ARE ALL ON FACEBOOK!
I've been missing out on the photos, the adventures and the gossip!

So, I did it.
I signed up.
I'm on Facebook!
I'm a member of the Betty Blogger Summer School Group... "Hello everyone!"
I have a Profile, Friends and a Photo Album.
I've been Tagged, I've sent notes and I've chatted live!
I see a future with my friends on Facebook.

But most importantly....I've locked myself down.
Or so I hope....if you see a photo of me floating around out there in cyberspace, let me know.
Thanks.
J