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As I write this, I have begun the process of terminating my current Facebook account.  This does not mean that I will be gone forever from the social time waster.  It just means that I am starting anew.

For those that have not been keeping up with twitter posts, the media, or some dude on the street, it seems that the new hip thing to do is complain about Facebook and point the finger the other way. Now I’m not an advocate for Facebook in anyway, but I have tried to hold back in what I have posted to Facebook in an effort to control my privacy.

However, I know that others have not used the same form of caution.  Some have treated the internet as a private conversation between friends when the basic principle of the internet is public.  From the moment you connect to a website, you have already created an open channel between three people (you, the website, and your ISP).  Therefore, I will be creating a new Facebook account and deleting my old one.

Why not leave altogether?  Well, when treated with caution and care, Facebook is a great tool to keep in touch with people.  Notice I didn’t say a great tool to find out what people are up to because that would defeat one of my reasons for creating the new “me.”  Basically, I envision my new facebook account to:

1. Limit the “who the crap is this person” factor.  When I first joined Facebook I was a simple minded freshman in college.  I just wanted to have as many friends as possible in an effort to seem cooler and more connected.  Now I am a simple minded post graduate who knows that’s just stupid.  I don’t need to accept invites from people I know from someone’s 3rd grade best friend’s dog’s original owner twice removed cousin.  If I don’t know you, I won’t add you.  [Let’s just see how long this one lasts….]
2. Reduce my use of the social site even further.  Currently, I only login to facebook to make a comment here or there on someone’s status or create a link back to this site.  Why do I even need to go that far?  Why not try to connect on a more personal level via email, phone call, or meet in person?
3. Contain the amount of personal identity information that is present on the web concerning myself.  With Facebook’s ever growing love of making one’s privates public (yeah, I know how that sounds but its true), I think I need to pull as much off to make a baseline minimum and then decide piece by piece what to add.  If I wouldn’t state where I work by name on my website, why would I do it on Facebook?

Now for those thinking to follow in my (and others) footsteps, check out this handy guide.  As I started the process, I even began to rethink joining Facebook again thanks to the message provided to me when I wanted to limit my full name to the site.

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If you don’t want to delete and recreate, then at least check out another handy tool, so that at least you know what is or can be out there related to your identity.

I’ve finished writing, but I haven’t finished migrating to my new facebook account.  Well I guess I know what will be taking up my time later this week.