Lately I've been in a bit of a panic over what to do about privacy on the internet. With all the fuss about Facebook privacy settings lately, I've started to feel a little uneasy about having so much information about myself on the internet. But how much is too much? And even if it's a lot of information, does it really matter? In a time where we're talking about doing away with Miranda rights and it's a crime to speak out against religion in Europe, do I really feel safe putting so much information about what I think on the internet?
A few months ago I went on a friend-culling crusade on Facebook, removing people I never really knew in the first place. Then I removed or untagged any pictures I felt did not show me in the "best light", aka at least moderately professional looking. A few weeks ago I considered leaving facebook completely, but decided to stay mainly for two reasons: one, there are friends from highschool and college that I would completely lose touch with, and two, both of my parents are now on Facebook and since they live 12 hours away in Michigan, Facebook gives me a unique opportunity to share my daily life with them in a new way. So getting off of Facebook completely was out. However I did want a way to separate my personal daily musings and happenings from my more academic, scholarly pursuits. And so the age old conundrum of multiple online personalities cropped up again. What information did I want to share with whom? Did it matter? Perhaps I should just put it all out there?
In the end I decided on a system that may not separate who can see what completely but at least lets me organize my thoughts better and will hopefully allow me better control over the different types of information I share with the world. Facebook will now be my outlet for personal reflections for friends and family. I now have a twitter account which will be related to Stop the Tartuffery and where I will share thoughts on science, philosophy, religion, etc. etc. etc.
We'll see how it goes... Hopefully I can keep up!
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