Facebook, I give up

So I wonder if anybody has had a similar experience to mine.

When I first signed up to Facebook, I thought of it only as of a personal communication tool, that allowed me to share my life with my friends, whom I carefully selected. I made a conscious effort not to friend everybody and their mothers. I thought of Facebook as of this very special place where I can be open and honest with some very special people in my life.

And not that what I wanted to share was inappropriate, but still there is stuff that I can share with some people and don’t want to share with others. Stuff like my feelings, what I do, where I go.

For example, I would update my status if I had a successful shopping trip and brag to my friends about a great deal that I got for a fantastic dress.

But then, I got a friend invitation from a colleague of mine. And that made me uncomfortable. It became a dilemma. What do I do? Not friending a colleague would be awkward. But at the same time, I didn’t really want my colleague to know everything I want to share with my friends.

So I decided to stay true to my initial decision to keep my Facebook account private and available only to my true close friends.

I meticulously declined invitations from people who I thought didn’t match my criteria of a friend and explained to them that my Facebook was private and that my professional network was on LikendIn.

And then the avalanche happened.

Everybody started friending everybody. I got dozens of invitations from people I hardly knew. I even got an invitation from my boss!

How what do you do with that?

I tried, I really tried to resist. I just couldn’t. I couldn’t any longer explain to everyone that I didn’t want to friend them. It just looked weird. I tried playing with the security settings – but I just don’t have the time or any desire to set individually who I want to see a particular photo of me and who I want to exclude from reading my status update – it is just too much trouble.

So I just give up!

That’s it. I open the gate and invite everybody.

Come, be my friend.

But I won’t be so open on Facebook any more. I won’t share my thoughts and feelings. I don’t want my boss to know when I get a great deal on a pair of shoes. I will just take my personal business elsewhere and consider Facebook a part of my public life…