What a 16 year old thinks about how Facebook is changing our society.

He (you) is (are) only 16 so I give him (you) some leeway here but this makes the same mistake a lot of technology pundits do in assuming users will have to adapt to technology rather than technology adapting to users.

The idea that you simply won't be able to maintain multiple social circles in 5 years is patently absurd. Mother's should not have to hear about their son's sex lives and Son's don't want them to. The fact that Facebook currently makes that happen is a flaw in the technology not a flaw in society.

>I urge everyone to adapt to these social changes and not try to fight them. Resisting the inevitable is counterproductive. Adapt to them completely, and conduct yourself in a manner that [...]

Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.

I've always been a weirdly private person. It mostly stems from my family, mostly because my mom has a motormouth, her parents who were the equivalent of the high school bully that could expose your every flaw, and I also learned some hard lessons about kids when I moved around a bit in middle/high school, developing an (un)healthy level of paranoia and social anxiety.

I have best friends/groups that I've managed to keep completely separate for more than five years. Maybe because of this, even on facebook I've managed to keep up the segregation after nearly 6 years through self-censorship and facebook features like friend lists. I think Facebook was also the first site I used (not counting ones requiring a verified identity) where I actually used my full real name to sign up (although I created several fake accounts first to test the waters)

My point is, if it's really, really important to a person to keep their lives separate, it is possible. It's not easy, but it's possible. Whether or not it's healthy and worth the time that it takes are the questions you have to ask.

There are some valid points but it exasperates that there is no way out. There is: simply not use Facebook, or if you use it, use it carefully.

There is a reason I do not link my Facebook account from my professional website and/or Linked-in account. And there is a reason I simply not use Facebook to share my private life with anybody.

The thing is that I have a private life which I don't want the whole internet to know about, sure I may want to share something with my real friends but I'm so old fashion that I prefer talking about it in a pub...

In the end I think people will learn not to be careless.

Incorrect, Facebook or the company that kills Facebook will figure out how to convey multiple identities from a single account.

Facebook will soon enable us to better manage multiple identities in the same way that Outlook's delay send feature helps us with working all hours of the night.

Eventually photos from your xmas party will only be viewable by your coworkers and photos from burning man will only be viewable by burners.

Facebook already has groups. So make your friends group, your family group, your coworkers group, and your BDSM group, and when you post anything, make sure you mark which group(s) to post it to. Facebook actually makes it pretty easy to do so. The author mentions groups but basically claims laziness as an excuse.

And of course, if you don't want anyone knowing what you're thinking or doing, DON'T POST IT.

It's not that hard to keep social identities separate. Don't add your Great Aunt Mildred as a friend on Facebook. If you really must, it's not like it's difficult to make separate accounts (annoying maybe, but not difficult).

Or, don't use Facebook at all.

I don't get this facebook thing just like I didn't get AOL and myspace before it.