The joys of Facebook

When Facebook first popped into the scene I was still in undergrad about to finish my first year.  I heavily resisted falling into 'the trend' and waited a long time to join.  It wasn't until a couple years later when I went overseas that I joined Facebook as a way to keep in touch with everyone back in the U.S. 

Now, some five or so years later I quickly realize how much of an impact joining Facebook has had on my life.  When I joined it was college students only.  I thought nothing of posting a picture or status update that might have had pictures or comments about the night before.  I've stripped my profile of almost everything that I don't want the world to see....but it haunts me (especially as a children's services person) that anything I ever posted, was tagged in, or commented on is still out there.  You can never delete anything really. 

So now when I have patron's come in and ask me to help them set up a Facebook account, or when parent's of my story time kids ask if I'm on Facebook I am constantly reminded of how un-private our private lives are these days.  What once started as a hilarious way for college students to connect and share crazy experiences with has turned into an open book into everything you never wanted anyone to know. 

I helped a women who speaks mostly Spanish and very little English the other day set up an account on Facebook.  It took several minutes to communicate the difference between posting to the 'wall' and sending a message.  I had to stop her when I noticed she was about to send some private info through the wall postings.  She comes in almost every night I work, she's even written down my schedule, to ask more questions about the inner workings of Facebook.  We haven't gotten to Twitter yet...but I know it is coming. 

Twitter is the new way to round about research.  When you see every one's thoughts on a world event or topic, the lines between your own thoughts and thoughts of other's blur.  Before having an informed opinion meant doing lots of research, now it just means jumping onto Twitter and seeing what everyone else has said about an event. 

So now as I build an awesome group of kids and parents that come every week to my events and get more involved with things on campus and join faculty committee's I daily edited what has been snowballing on my profiles.  Social networking sites are like all good things in life...you can't live with them.  But you can't live without them.  Because of Facebook I've built a really good relationship with a lot of patron's and gained their confidence in my abilities.  I've advanced my standing among faculty members by joining groups they've created, and extended the reach of my little library branch in the community by making people aware of events I hold by posting about them.  But at the same time they know I have two older sisters, that my brother in law loves to cook, and that I have the world's most adorable four year old nephew.  All very private things that catch me off guard when they ask how they're all doing during Saturday story times.  It makes me feel like I have to work a hundred times harder to appear professional when they've seen pictures of my in my pajamas.