“Oh no! Your mom just joined Facebook!”

Students might find this article in today’s New York Times about how to separate your social circles in Facebook helpful.  Even more important than sheltering one’s parents from one’s social life, though,  is maintaining privacy about certain things from potential employers or graduate school admissions offices.

… The issue isn’t really that black and white, though. You may feel it’s OK for your colleagues to see some of your Facebook photos (like those from the conference you attended), but not others (like those from the party). You also may be a little uncomfortable with the boss reading your wall posts, especially if your friends have an odd sense of humor at times.

If you’re not ready to expose everything about you to anyone who asks to be your online friend, it’s time you learned how to use Facebook’s friend lists.

A little over a year ago, Facebook launched a new feature called “Friend Lists.” With lists, you can create groups of friends on Facebook, separating work from family and close friends. It’s simple to use, but it’s definitely an underutilized feature.

Read on at “How to Friend Mom, Dad, and the Boss on Facebook…Safely“

Picture Your Name Here

I’m just back from a writers’ conference, which was really even better than a vacation. Here’s a short post as I get back into the swing of things here at the Academic Services office.

The New York Times published a brief article about photo-tagging on Facebook, and how de-tagging photos (posted by friends or people in your network) can be important to maintaining your privacy and online reputation. Thanks to Terri Downing for sending me this.

Picture Your Name Here

By Lisa Guernsey

 

SUNDAY afternoon used to mean lazing on the quad or sleeping off a hangover. No one could remember much about what happened the night before.

Now there’s a new ritual: reviewing Saturday night’s escapades. By nap time, party photographs are already posted on Facebook.com. Not surprisingly, they may reveal a little too much. Even more mortifying, they’ve likely been tagged — the individuals featured in the photos identified. [Read more]