My FaceBook Persona is not Me.

Listening to Prof. Bibo White talk on the future of social networking, where FaceBook leads the way with over 400 million members, actually making it the 3rd largest country in the world (in terms of population); I started thinking how my FaceBook account has taken over my life.

Every morning, I open FaceBook before my office email. I run TweekDeck; which allows me to update FaceBook and Twitter; without the need to visit the websites and browse through the status updates sof my friends. Yup, I am part of the FaceBook nation but how much of what I put on FaceBook really represents me?

FaceBook is my online persona, and it may or may not be true to who I am. I can safely hide behind a digital mask and none would be the wiser to me. And I am beginning to catch myself telling people I meet to search me on FaceBook. I don't carry name-cards anymore, choosing instead to ask people to Google my name and it will lead them to my blog.

But FaceBook is not me. It represents me, yet it is not me. It doesn't capture me as a person. Instead, you read what I want you to read. And I can make up whatever I want you to read. I can be a hard-convict in prison and online, I can make myself to be the granny that lives next door you to you.

And looking at my FaceBook account, I have almost 500 friends yet in everyday life, I tend to talk to only 3 people. And these 3 people know me as I am, not the FaceBook persona but me as a human being.

Technorati : Facebook, Social Networking, Technology, TweetDeck, life, self realization

Del.icio.us : Facebook, Social Networking, Technology, TweetDeck, life, self realization

Zooomr : Facebook, Social Networking, Technology, TweetDeck, life, self realization

Flickr : Facebook, Social Networking, Technology, TweetDeck, life, self realization