I like Facebook. Via Facebook I can message my wife when I’m at work, keep in touch with friends, reconnect with friends I haven’t talked to for years, and broadcast the occasional thought that I feel like sharing.
I am also very much aware of the potential for doing damage to yourself via indiscreet use of services like Twitter and Facebook. Like someone who has had a little too much to drink, some people just can’t help themselves and feel compelled to vomit out whatever comes to mind and document their activity on Facebook.
Sure, you can mark your Facebook profile as private so that only your friends can see it, but who among us doesn’t have at least a couple of idiots for friends? Do you really trust the confidentiality of what you post on Facebook?
I am constantly amazed by the Facebook activity of my co-workers while on the job. Don’t these people realize they are creating a semi-public record of A) their violation of computers in the workplace policy, and B) creating a fairly accurate accounting of just how much time they are spending not doing their jobs while on the clock? I am quietly watching and waiting for the first incident where someone gets days on the street based on Facebook activity. It’s kind of become a morbid fascination with me, wondering which of my idiot co-workers will be the first to get spanked.
Future Darwin Award winner Jonathan Parker found out the hard way that injudicious use of Facebook can lead to trouble. Now he’s looking at 1 to 10.
I get the whole Facebook thing. I check Facebook at least as much as I check my email. I have taken to using an integrated Twitter/Facebook client so that I am always connected when using my home computer. However, you need to be able to step away, just like any other vice. If Facebook addiction is something you are teetering on the precipice of, perhaps it’s time to take a look at Facebook Lite. At least that way when you are answering the hard questions your employer is asking you about all the documented time you have spent using Facebook while on payroll, you don’t have to explain the 100+ hours of Bejeweled Blitz.
It just might save your job.
Better yet, if you must use Facebook while you’re on someone else’s dime, perhaps it’s best to limit yourself to using it as the communication tool that it is, and exercise discretion.
