Daryl Tay.net

I remember the “early” days of Facebook, things seemed kinda simpler. Sure you had to deal with annoying sheep being thrown at you, but that was about it.

Now that it’s grown to a stage where every Tom, Dick and Harry can add you on Facebook, the irony is the more people in the network (both your immediate network and the whole Facebook network), the more private we become.

I just checked and a grand total of 68 people can see all my settings. And I’m beginning to think that’s too high. I apparently went over-zealous with my privacy settings and had people asking me why they can’t see *anything* o my wall. There are many reasons (most of them having to do with the very public break up) but I think at the essence the reason is “I don’t trust you.” – I don’t trust you enough not to take a screenshot of whatever I posted and send it to someone else, or to make what I said more public or some crap like that.

I’m genuinely not a public person – take a look at this blog which is my “personal” blog. Sure there’s lots of commentary on pop culture and Arsenal and the like, but there is very little about this blog that is truly “personal”, especially in the last year. Some people want to live their lives online as an open book, more power to them, but working in digital, I’m a little more aware of the repercussions (though apparently not aware enough, cos I’m still dealing with some fallout now).

Sometimes, I feel bad because I err on the side of caution and if there is the slightest *chance* that something bad will happen by giving this person access to my wall, I”ll block him/her (even though we’re still friends on Facebook).

One one hand, although the internet is enabling more intimacy with more people at a faster speed than before, on the other it’s also reminding us who the “core” group of people who are truly “friends” and can be trusted, are.

Here’s a video from TED on the same topic that might be interesting: