I’ve posted in the past about engaging in social networking. For some reason doing so has always rung hollow to me, and as such there was little lasting power. There have been a few which have tempted me initially, Facebook was briefly a blasty-blast, Plurk was a riot, and LinkedIn seemed like a good idea. Yet for each, the luster has faded and I am no longer engaged in the site.

Recently, I think I figured out why: I don’t like communicating with people I don’t know “in RL.” With all of the sites I’ve tried and initially enjoyed, there have been a group of people I know who used it first and drew me in. While there, I was just communicating with my friends via a new medium and it was a blast. Yet, with each there came a point where there would be strange voices in the conversation suddenly. Names I couldn’t place, and strangers I couldn’t put a face too. The sites which started out in good fun all became a place that was no longer “safe.” Of all the sites I’ve tried, Facebook is the only one I still visit occasionally, but it’s far easier to isolate myself among my friends on Facebook. There is a deep permissions system I can use to hide away where no one can see me. Facebook, for all of its privacy follies, is one of the safer places on the internet.

I’m not a overly private person. Google my name, or better still, my online identity, and you’ll find thousands of results. I’m definately out there - a lot more so than many people - but Google results aren’t engaging. They’re not a medium to communicate with me. To me it’s just a part of modern living. By and large, I am in control of the information that is available about me in those searches; it isn’t personally damning or embarassing. It doesn’t reflect who I am, or what I believe, and if it does, it’s because I’ve put it in this blog and I’m comfortable with people reading it. The rare exceptions are blog posts I wrote a long time ago and now shudder when I read them, but I leave them up, as a marker of who I used to be.

So with social networks, if I engage it’s because I feel safe to be myself. Once that safety is compromised, so too is my willingness to contribute. I wonder if I’m alone in this?