About face!

So how do you keep in touch with your friends?

Are they on other webs, just around the bend?

Or is your web so big that everyone can fit,

With conversations around bit by little bit?

Somehow, I have managed to avoid Facebook, the social media phenomenon that began in 2004.  While many (most?) of my friends have used Facebook extensively, I have always been tentative about jumping on the bandwagon.  In the past two years, as my technological aptitude has skyrocketed, I have started to interact more with the web, creating blogs and using Twitter, yet have still avoided Facebook.  However, I think the time has come to take the plunge.  As part of my Web 2.0 inquiry project for LIBE 477, I will be adding Facebook to my repertoire of social networking tools.

I have actually been a bit of a Facebook "lurker" since January, when I initially set up my account.  This allowed me into Facebook, where I could look at information about various organizations that are on Facebook.  I even searched for some people I knew, checking out how much information (or not) was visible.  One of my big concerns about Facebook has been the privacy/safety issue, so I was interested to see the level of control people had over their accounts.  It seems some of my acquaintances have their information wide open while others are very limited.

I did a quick search looking for "hazard of Facebook" and came up with some good tips:

• use the lists function to limit who can see what; ie. family vs. friends vs. the boss
• take some time to go through all the profile pages and make the settings appropriate
• review all privacy settings; "only friends" is the safest setting for any feature
• keep friends from sharing your info; in applications and websites
• don't friend people you don't know
• don't reveal your location
• limit use of applications; they may take your personal info
• you can remove a tag of yourself from someone else's photo
• turn the "social ads appearance" to no one

Some of these tips seem very obvious.  I went back to check out how I had set up everything and my settings were pretty much in line with the recommendations.

References:

Facebook. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved January 30, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook

Liu, A. (2010, October 24).  5 ways to stay safe on Facebook.  Foxnews.com  Retrieved from http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/10/23/ways-stay-safe-facebook/

Null, C. (2009, June 25).  Facebook hazards - and how you can avoid them. itbusiness.ca Retrieved from http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=53662&PageMem=1