The downside of Facebook

I learned today that I need to be much more careful about facebook. The problem is that I am using facebook for two things:

1. To keep in contact with friends
2. To keep in contact with work colleagues
   

The problem is that I project a different image to the two groups. When I say image, I wear the same clothes, but I act differently with each group. This is fairly normal, most people have a professional image.

One of my friends uploaded some photos to facebook that I would have preferred no one at work ever see. Today they were found. To be honest it was partly my fault that they were discovered, I accidentally let it out that there was an embarrassing photo of me at the pub today.

I realized that anyone from the first group can affect my profile in ways that the second set can see. In this case the change they make may not be something I would like to be part of my professional profile. I think this is why you need sites like linkedin and facebook to be separate.

For now I have made my profile private, but I think I will be rethinking my existence on facebook. Perhaps I will have two profiles, perhaps I will just stop using it for my work life, I do not know.

Alasdair