So…
I started a Facebook page, and all I can say is, it is super awesome! I have found a lot of old friends and I have been able to get and give updates on life as we know it [or see it]. About a week after starting it, one of my friends that I haven’t seen in over ten years [grade school friend] sent me a message and told me he was going to be in the Seattle area for a wedding. We ended up meeting up at a small restaurant face to face and catching up on each others lives and talking about old times. That was such a treat! I have also found out about an old girlfriend who got married, a few old friends that now have children, and a whole bunch of other neat things. I am really happy that I decided to go with the Facebook idea. Now I just have to hope they don’t shut it down anytime soon.
That leads me to my first philosophical question… [actually it may not be very "philosophical" as it is more just pondering]. I know that people say from time to time that it is a small world. I have seen it for myself, but at the same time, I feel that small worldliness comes from circumstances that we don’t always think of. People end up in similar places, know common people, and feel common feelings for reasons that are probably more complex than I really understand, but I still feel like there is some reason for it [because, let's be realistic, this world is not small].
I want to keep my blog separate from my Facebook simply because I am still [and may always be] looking for a really good job. I have heard a lot of talk about how employers look at Facebook and other social networking sites to determine if you are some kind of freak or weirdo, and seeing how I like to blog about strange and funny things that are also sometimes very opinionated, I would hate for them to get the wrong idea. I was laid off from my “good job” in 2009, and it was a real bummer. I loved my job, worked hard at it, yet I was always the same crazy person I have been when I went home at the end of the day. Not crazy in a bad way, just crazy perhaps in the eyes of Corporate Joe [or Jane lol].
With that said, this plan made me think… I wonder if the world is small enough for a potential employer or some other interested party to be able to recognize me from my avatar (profile picture) and be able to link me to my blog?
I don’t really wear my hair as crazy as I used to and certainly I don’t have laser beams coming out of my eyes [even though that might be really cool].
So the real question was more like this… I know that people say “it’s a small world,” but is the internet a small world? In our real life worlds I feel like we are exposed to so few different people, ideas, and events in comparison to the internet life of someone who spends a fair amount of time using the internet.
Less philosophical and more food for thought I guess.
Comment if you like, what do you think?
I will leave the second question for a separate blog post since this one got way longer than I had anticipated.
Hope all is well…
5 Comments
You are so right. I’ve never been more paranoid about certain people (employers, etc) finding me online than I have been in t he past while. Especially since starting my WP. I want to be able to say what I want and be whoever without worrying about what some busy body is going to have to say about it. The internet only makes us as anonymous as we want to be. I certainly could have gone to greater lengths to disguise my identity online but a good reason of why I used part of my real name as my username is because I couldn’t be bothered to think of a clever screen name :)
Well let’s just hope it is anonymous enough that people from work don’t try to start trouble… they would probably be mean or jealous types though lol
The internet makes the world smaller, and conversely larger at the same time, opening new doors. Thirty years ago you might have held the same job all your life, but you’d never have had the wealth of opportunities that are open to you online this morning!
PS- make your facebook page private and post freely. ;-)
Yeah, now there are like 3million jobs open everyday online, the only problem with that is they ONLY want you to apply online. No face time, no impressions, just an application… talk about it is who you know!