Are you different at work than with your friends?

My good friend Mario talks about a NYTimes article on Fakebook generation.

First relevant quotes: from NYTimes:

Facebook did not become popular because it was a functional tool — after all, most college students live in close quarters with the majority of their Facebook friends and have no need for social networking. Instead, we log into the Web site because it's entertaining to watch a constantly evolving narrative starring the other people in the library.

Facebook purports to be a place for human connectivity, but it's made us more wary of real human confrontation.

For young people, Facebook is yet another form of escapism; we can turn our lives into stage dramas and relationships into comedy routines. Make believe is not part of the postgraduate Facebook user's agenda. As more and more older users try to turn Facebook into a legitimate social reference guide, younger people may follow suit and stop treating it as a circus ring. But let's hope not.

And Mario:

To me Facebook or any other social network is about expressing your personal side, your social side and your fun side, but it's never going to be cool to share my party pics with my team at work (for obvious reasons). I enjoy the social narrative and on a separate level love to see my professional network updates on LinkedIn, which in my opinion heralded the coming of the mini-feed, which many faithful & typical Facebook users hated at the time of its launch (Just ask Danah Boyd about the "Privacy trainwreck").


I have an account at both Facebook and LinkedIn. I add friends very slowly and only those I know at facebook. Whereas use linkedin for anyone who sends me a request - why? I use linkedin ONLY as an online contact manager.

I know they have a lot more capabilities and features, but none of those matter to me. I spend about 15 min either helping people connect with potential hires or adding new friends on linked in a month.

Facebook though is the best way to keep up with all my business contacts. What events and shows they are attending, what books they are reading and what they recommend.

In some senses, I dont use facebook as a social tool as much a business "communication and ongoing keep in touch" tool.

Navel gazing on Facebook never caught my attention. I dont turn people into Zombies or return beers because my other friends dont send those to me. That's probably what Gen Y does. Which is why as a business tool Facebook is far move valuable than Linkedin will ever be to me.

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