Rethinking Facebook as a more standard social network

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As Facebook has evolved from a college-only network into a broader social network, so have my uses for it and my views on it.

Traditionally, I used Facebook to connect with some of my closest college and high school friends. We’d exchange inappropriate wall posts, send news over direct messages, post photos of each other and in general just have a good time staying connected, even though we have dispersed around the world.

Everything changed after Facebook opened up to everyone. Now potential employers were lurking on Facebook, scrutinizing every wall post, photo and friend connection. Now I’m getting friend requests from people I have never met.

It’s a whole different social network. As Facebook has gotten larger and tapped into a bigger social community, is has actually become less social between individual members. I now have more friends, but I less to share with each friend.

I have to be guarded. It’s no longer just my close friends viewing my profile. They get my inside jokes, our drunken photos from parties and they know when I’m serious or not.

Because of this, many of my friends have stopped using Facebook as much. Once you graduate, you have to think of your career, and the last thing you would want to happen is have a social network derail your career.

So, my profile is a lot tamer. I even use Facebook for business and journalism purposes now. This is why I finally put a link to my Facebook page on my connect page. I never publicized my Facebook usage before, because I tried to keep my friends list to people I know.

But times have changed. That’s why if you want to connect on with me on Facebook, you can. I have just a few requests of you if you choose to friend me on Facebook:

  • If you want to be my friend, act like it. This means saying hello, sending me IMs and messages, debating issues and in general being social. Facebook is not LinkedIn. If you just want to have me as business connection use that service instead.
  • I’m still going to be me. I can only make my profile so tame. I’m going to have fun on Facebook, and you should too. Again, if you want to see an extremely business side of me, there are other social networks for that.
  • http://www.greglinch.com Greg Linch

    I think the growth of other social networking sites has also contributed Facebook’s decline among some users. It used to be the center of the social networking universe for a lot of people I know, but now they may blog instead of posting a note, use Twitter instead of updating their status, upload photos to Flickr instead of an album, etc. This also ties into creating a more public and professional image of themselves online, as you mentioned, in preparation of looking for a job.