You guessed it, more social networking nonsense from my 2:30am sleep deprived mind. Most of us that use social neworking sites/applications nowadays don't really notice how open we've made our private lives. With Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, and all the other things popping up lately, privacy seems to go out the window. When used wisely, they can all be great tools. Let your friends know something interesting, or about a cool new bar, or share pictures you've taken when out and about. If you only add the people you know well, then there's rarely a problem.
Personally, I'm one of those who will leave most everything open to everyone that I've added, but be selective in what I post or upload. I've seen people post updates/pictures/locations of things that I think would be questionable, or something I wouldn't want random strangers seeing, and have their profile wide open. A quick google search can tell a lot about a person, or at least paint a picture of a person based on their online persona.
Some applications will give out the location you're in. Ubertwitter has been a repeat offender about this, I can normally tell when someone's updated to the latest version of Ubertwitter because everyone starts posting a link to their location soon afterwards. Ubertwitter has (or had) as a default, to auto-add the location you're tweeting from. It grabs the GPS info, and throws it into a link at the end of your status update. I've had a few friends who I know for a fact would not share their location on purpose (work/home), accidentally tweet their location because of this. I normally send them a quick message just in case, and they turn the option off.
Sometimes, we may be a little too connected. What happens when there's a problem between friends? Do you post about it? Do you hide the other person's updates? Do you go as far as removing someone as a friend? That seems a bit childish, unless whatever the argument was got to the point where you two are no longer friends. At this point, it really doesn't matter I guess. It can be awkward at times commenting on a mutual friend's update, and both parties not acknowledging the other's existence. I've seen it happen, it can be quite entertaining if you either already know about the problem, or if you have a hunch about it and see two people avoiding each other like the plague.
With being too connected to others, there are times when you really don't want to deal with someone, whether because you know all they're going to do is ask you to download some nerd book (*cough* @Autra *cough*), or just ramble on about nothing in particular for an hour. There are many a time where I'll completely ignore a Facebook status, Twitter reply, or text message. It's not always to be a complete asshole. Sometimes, while you may think it'll only take 2 minutes, it ends up turning into a 30 minute conversation. Maybe I don't have 30 minutes at the moment, or I don't think it's worth spending that much time on.
It probably doesn't need to be said, but I pretty much embraced the whole online social networking thing early on, and I think overall it's a great thing. The difference is, I understand the different issues that could come up, and for the most part, if I don't want something getting out, it doesn't. That being said, again, I'm pretty open to sharing where I am, what I'm doing, pics of what I'm doing, so a lot of what I'm saying doesn't really apply to me I guess. Just something to think about.
