Naive! I never really put much thought in my Facebook status, or whatever you want to call it. I knew other people might see it, but at random moments, with random thoughts, I wrote random things. Did I ever consider the implications of what I might write? Maybe, but never enough to change what I was writing. Yesterday I read an article in 24 Hours that was talking about the way people use Facebook, to publicly announce (what should be) private aspects of their lives. I keep fairly private with my affairs, and that includes my use of Facebook. I don’t post many, if any, pictures (although I’ve considered uploading from the archives), and I don’t provide relevant updates to the events of my life. Most of the things that I do on Facebook are reactive, not proactive, and things like my tagline are, as I mentioned, random. Ironically, the day before I had read the article in 24 Hours, I had changed my statement, on a whim, to an old line from SNL: wookin pah nub in all da wong paces (Eddie Murphy as Buckwheat), which is a parody of the Little Rascals character.

After realizing the implications of what I’d written, I decided it would be a good idea to test how many people actually read those things, so I changed my status/name thing to: Jason is wondering if anyone actually reads these things. Within less than 10 minutes, I had already received an initial response, indicating that yes, people do read those things, and pay attention enough to actually respond. In less than a day, I’ve had a handful of responses, reinforcing the idea that these types of broadcasts are watched.

Although the article focussed more on relationship status and the complications that the feature can add to the relationship, there is hope. The final bit of the article provided a way to avoid any hurt feelings or misunderstandings - don’t add your girlfriend or boyfriend on Facebook. Perhaps an answer, but I guess people, especially myself, need to pay more attention to what types of information they provide, whether intentionally or on a whim.

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