Frankly, there should be a 10th category to this now classic SF Gate article on Facebook friends: the work friends. I’d also like this article expanded to include Twitter followers. Same rules apply… minus pictures + website links.
Before I justify my thought: I AM GUILTY OF EVERYTHING I TYPE. (Except playing “Words with Friends” I refuse… there’s no actual fighting, despite how hostile the game sounds.) I just don’t annoy myself, and hey, this is my space, so I get to write about it.
As a young adult under 30 someone who mostly knows how to text, tweet, status update and blog, there is an entire generation at work that you HAVE to be friends with on Facebook and other social media sites. Because Person X knows how to use Facebook and friended you, you HAVE to friend back. Person X sees you at work. Person X shares your refrigerator. Person X may know some juicy gossip on that associate. Person X can now see how often you play (and post about) Words with Friends.
Now that Person X is your friend on Facebook, you can’t talk about him/her anymore. They can probably access your twitter account, so you shouldn’t tweet about them… (eh, that doesn’t stop me!) but most importantly, there’s no line anymore. Work friends very very quickly become “good friends” as they know the date of your birth, what you did last weekend, what your house looks like (if you’re silly enough to post pictures of your house and your dog all time. I am.)… gone are the days of separation between social life and work life.
While I pause to think about how that affects me, I’m going to post on Facebook about how my weekend was short and how I really hate Mondays. That should be benign enough, right?
