Facebook

[kb91]

Well, I've finally got myself a Facebook account, something that still feels weird to me, after all these years of being semi-anonymous on the internet. I mean, putting your full name and all your personal details online? Really

Comments

[wendymr]

Yeah, this is why I don't go on Facebook. All those personal details? No thanks. Not even if I set my privacy settings to the very highest level. Not for me. (Apart from the fact that the site itself, and the style of interaction, does nothing for me).

And when you add to that the fact that many employers are now Googling and Pipling and generally checking job applicants' (and current employees') online profiles, that scares me away from places like Facebook even more. Someone who works in my field, in my city, was interviewed for a job she really wanted, didn't get it, called for feedback and was told 'check your Facebook'. Yeah. You bet she's now cleaned up her online profile and privacy settings!

[elshadye]

I will admit, those job search horror stories keep me paranoid about Facebook. At least on LJ, it's very very hard to find me unless you already know me well.

Out of curiosity - what's Pipling? And was the problem with that one lady only because she had Facebook stuff with public settings? Or would they have been able to track stuff down even if it were under more stringent privacy settings?

(Despite my paranoia, I have grown to love Facebook...oops. :-P So welcome, Kathy!)

[wendymr]

There's a website called Pipl, for searches about... people ;) And they search differently from Google so sometimes find stuff Google doesn't.

The thing with Facebook is that you need to have your privacy settings high, but so do your friends... otherwise your photograph and some information can appear on your friends' profile pages without you having any control over it :( Or so I'm told.

[kb91]

I think a lot of this depends on how you use it. Clearly, there are young people (or even older people who should know better) who aren't thinking about the fact that their employers or college professors or whoever can see everything they've posted. And if you're going to use your page to brag about your latest conquest or showcase how drunk you got last weekend or how many curse words you can use in one sentence, then you are simply an idiot. (This is the main reason that Jim won't get an account, since his students tend to friend their professors. As he puts it, "I don't *want* to know about all the parties they go to