The answer is of course not! This article from the New York Times ponders a Facebook backlash and the Wall Street Journal chimes in with the notion of how Facebook can ruin friendships. There is truth to various parts of these articles but fortunately Facebook keeps on growing not only in scale but also in evolving to what users want and not forcing changes or restrictions upon them.
Emily Post would have a field day writing about the general lack of manners online but when it comes to Facebook it’s easy to manage your account to shut out the noise and also limit what some “friends” see. Be it political or a matter of not wanting to hurt someone’s feelings, we all add friends that we know we’d never sit down with for a drink or invite to a ball game. Do you really want to know what these same people are doing 24/7 especially if they update constantly and conversely do you want to give them access to all of your photos and personal information?
The Facebook lists are incredibly powerful feature and you can select your privacy level with each list. Chris Brogan shares his approach to managing his Facebook account and if you follow the similar steps you’ll have much more confidence in using your profile as well as knowledge in knowing that people only see what you want them to see.
So reconsider the notion that Facebook has become the new MySpace until it actually happens.
