Thing 4

I'm having a really tough time with this one. Not because the technology is difficult to use, but because I am having anxiety about signing up with facebook. I have resisted this long, why start now?

My resistance comes from liking my anonymity. I grew up in a small town where everyone knew your business before you even were aware of it. Town gossip - the precursor to twitter. But there are so many people that I don't keep in touch with on a regular basis that I would like to keep tabs on....

Maybe my real fear is that I will be that lame facebooker. The one like your mom: no profile picture, no album, never updates her status. Its just another thing I have to maintain.

I am a member of Linkedin, mainly because former students requested my endorsement and recommendation. I can't say that I enjoy keeping up with it. I am just a lousy networker and the relative ease of networking should be appealing to someone with no skills (like myself) but I just find it stressful.

I can see the advantages of facebook - finding old friends and classmates (a great professional network) and sharing vacation photos freely. For now, I think I'm going to put Thing 4 on hold and return to it when I'm ready to sign my privacy away - if I'm ever ready for that.