Social Networking

Facebook is a fun way to peek into the lives of coworkers and fellow students, as well a great means of keeping up with far flung relatives and people I knew once upon a time. Right now I have 114 Facebook friends, many of whom I haven't seen since my freshman or junior year in high school. There are even a couple of people I haven't seen since elementary school! I tend to use it as a social, rather than professional tool, but I include less personal information on my Facebook page than I do on MySpace. This is in part due to the fact that I'm Facebook friends with many people from the library, which does raise the issue of the line between work life and personal life becoming blurred. I've even had a patron friend request me!
I keep meaning to create a LinkedIn account, maybe one of these days . . . As for Twitter, it just hasn't grabbed my interest. Maybe it will at some point.
I've seen a lot of articles lately about managing one's online identity, which prompted me to create a Google profile that will provide some basic information about me when someone searches for my full name. I do have some privacy concerns when it comes to Google, though. Between my Google profile, the content of my Gmail messages, and the searches I perform, they certainly have access to a lot of info about me! Let's hope they stick to not being evil.