Some time ago now Sally Coleman over at Eternal Echoes talked a little about something she was looking at in terms of whether it is possible to offer Pastoral Care via Blogs and Facebook. I remember at the time thinking that it could be good up to a point, but that face to face is still the best way. However, when it comes to Facebook in particular, I'm beginning to wonder how much is possible.
I wasn't an early adopter of Facebook, but I have become someone that goes on there at least once a day now, and as more and more people join the site (and some of them find me) my friend list went up. I still don't have that many compared to some, but the disparate crew on there includes family, friends from college, people from my University days, one or two people from messageboards I frequent, various people who have roles within the Methodist Church, friends of my wife's.... a wide variety in other words, of people who I have some sort of connection with.
The end result of this is that I'm discovering that I'm being a lot more cautious about what I put on there. There are things I shared last year through my Status that I simply wouldn't post this year: it used to be I knew everyone personally, and in many cases well (or at least well enough to trust with my inner thoughts and feelings), but now there are people I haven't seen in over 15 years, some who I have never actually met in person, and others who while friends are not what I would call close friends. Suddenly sharing some of those things becomes far too risky - do I really want people who are not close to know these things?
Some things are of course still possible, with Messenger conversations and private messages hidden from view - but in some ways I no longer feel that I can be as open because Facebook is throwing up too many friends, too many people who while it is nice to be back in touch with, don't have the same sort of connection to me.
Is this inevitable with Social Networking? One of my favourite Podcasts, Buzz Out Loud, reported recently on a story that a Juror who used Twitter to talk about a verdict before it was announced in court may cause a mistrial.
It's beginning to look that the more people join these services, the more we have to think about how we use them. Facebook does allow you to only share certain things with certain people - are we all going to have to learn how to use it?
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