"I've seen you before... on Facebook"

Some of my best friends are friends from high school.  The problem is, we all don't have a lot of extra time to catch up regularly.  But with Facebook, I can stay updated on who got a new job, or see pictures from a spring break getaway.

Recently, when my aunt requested to be my friend, I had no qualms about accepting.  A quick scan of the posts on her wall made what I already knew apparent: Adults are increasingly joining social networking sites to reconnect with friends and family.  

My aunt lives in India, so I'm glad that I can keep in touch with her on Facebook.  However some of my peers don't like the idea of being cyber friends with Mom or Dad.  What are they so scared of?  A lack of privacy would be my first guess.  Yet, when it comes to putting information about yourself on the Internet, you have little privacy from anyone, anyway.

For example, last year I met a guy at a friend's birthday party.  The conversation went sort of like this:

Me: Hi, I'm Deepa.

Guy: Yeah, I think we've met before.  You look familiar.

Me:  Really?  I don't think so; I'm pretty good at remembering people.

Guy: Oh, you're right.  I think I've just seen a lot of pictures of you on Facebook.

Though the exchange left me feeling a tad uncomfortable, I shocked myself when I realized that this probably wasn't a unique incident.  I wondered, how many students at KU could recognize another student they've never met, just from seeing them on Facebook or MySpace?  I would much rather have my mom click though photos of me than some random person who just happened to stumble on my page.

That idea also begs the question: If more and more adults are joining social networking sites, are they too, going to be stumbling on my Facebook page?

I would guess no, unless they were actually "friends" of mine.  But it is true that some adults who you wouldn't expect to see your profile know what your hobbies are and which groups you're in.  Almost a quarter of employers check social networking sites when deciding whether to hire a new employee.  Of those, 34 percent chose to pass on a prospective employee based on the information on his or her page. 

How can you keep your favorite time waster and ensure you're not risking future opportunities?  The solution is easy.  Monitor yourself and notch up your privacy settings (which should be done anyway, regardless of an expanding Facebook clientele.) Beware of sharing too much information on a profile.  It isn't worth loosing a job to let your friends know that you are "soo hungover from partyin all weekend... screw class!"