I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately, well really over the last few minutes most intently. And I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not too wild about Facebook any more. Facebook can be a wonderful tool for building an online social network, but I am increasingly feeling the same constraints that vex me in the real world coming into the online one as well.
Many of my hobbies and interests are anything but mainstream. Nevertheless, there are many forums on the internet where I’ve enjoyed interacting with other who share the same interests. Facebook has similar interests groups as well, but because my real name is associated with my Facebook activities, I do not feel as free to express my interests in those things. On Facebook, keeping walls between your different activity groups is not an easy task. Those who fail to do so run the risk of job loss, divorce, excommunication, and a variety of other sanctions as a result of “misbehaving”.
Ironically, using my real name on Facebook means that I can’t keep it real on Facebook. So I’m pulling back from there. I had fun experimenting with Facebook, but the chains are just too heavy. I still believe that there’s no such thing as anonymity on the internet, but I’ll take even this thin veneer over the nakedness of Facebook and the tyranny of the normal.
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