Society changes fast. Things that don't exist one day, matter like crazy the next. Now if you're not a user of social network site Facebook, this will mean nothing to you; but if you are, you'll know that your 'Status' is the line next to your name in which you can type a few words to tell the world what you're up to right now.
What some people tend not to realise, however, is that by virtue of Facebook's plethora of tentacle like feeds and streams, these few words can very easily end up being notified to just about everyone you know, or work with, or share membership of any of a pile of fairly tenuous 'groups' with.
It's fascinating. With scant regard for the breadth of distribution, some users update their status regularly with details so mundane that to share them is merely to elicit sympathy for the paucity of experience in their lives. Others, however, expose themselves in a far more dangerous way, seeing this as the ideal opportunity to brag about their acquisition of gadgetry or other consumer goodies. What, one wonders, possesses anyone to think that the world will think better of them for knowing they have a new iPod, iPhone, little red Corvette, cheeseburger or anything else. It won't. It's a failing on behalf of the author, a moment of self indulgence which can portray them only in a worse light than that in which they started out. (Unless, of course, they and all their associates are 12 years old.)
So. Be circumspect. In our weird, social networked society, your Facebook status is media. It's a transient poster site for your personal brand on which your friends, relatives and business associates will, consciously or subconsciously, base their current impression of who you are and where your head is.
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