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Whenever I speak to new Facebook members the immediate reaction is the following:  "It's Awesome! I've found all these old school friends from high school! Weeeeee!" Facebook has really brought people together and reunited old friends, but there is an inherent danger to Facebook. By bringing people together, you may be exposing certain social circles that have been separate in the past (with reason) to one another.
The real issue with using social networking sites like Facebook is revealing way too much information about your social circle with acquintances, coworkers and family. Isn't social networking all about sharing social information with friends and family anyways? Yes it is, but you have to ask yourself one thing. Before the advent of social networking sites like Facebook, was there anyone within your actual circle of friends and family, that knew exactly every single detail of your social life? Here are some examples - Did you poker buddy know that last night you went to play without him? - Did your ex-girlfriend know that you went out on a date with some new girl? - Did your co-worker know that the real reason you weren't at work on Monday was because you got hammered on Sunday and in fact you weren't at the doctors. The biggest mistake new Facebook members make is to basically commit too much information online without thinking of the social interactions that they may have. Every evening, they log in and tell the entire world everything they have done that day without thinking about who they have on their Facebook friends list. I think the biggest danger stems from the convergence of two very different and separate social circles converging. George Costanza from Seinfeld said it best when he said "World's are colliding!" I don't want one ex girlfriend asking me about a picture she saw on my Facebook which belongs to some new girl I'm dating. I don't want my collegues to know that I in fact got wasted on Saturday. And really, nobody says that I have to add anyone to my Facebook profile, but in a society that is shifting from the "Can I get your number" to the "Can I add you on Facebook", remaining private is getting harder and harder. For the record, you can give people access to a limited profile, but from experience, this is more insulting to them than telling them "No I don't want to add you on Facebook". To conclude, the best advice I can give you is to be selective about the activites that you publish on Facebook and moreso, try to be even more careful about the people you add to your friends list.
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