Comments on: Why I went private on Twitter

By: Tara

Tara — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 21:08:41 +0000

I'm reading this far later than other commenters, but a dilemma I've been reckoning with for the past couple of years is how my public, private, and mix-of-both-work lives mix. on the one hand, i'm a journalist, so the networking and getting-sources capabilities of Twitter and Facebook are invaluable. At the same time, I do like the use of those spaces–more Facebook than Twitter–for the enjoyment of a social network of people I care about. So do I create two accounts? I have two Twitter accounts, one personal and one specifically for a 3-month work project I'm doing, but I follow many of the same people and my personal is still mostly used for journalism.

I also did this as a high school teacher with MySpace–one for personal friends and one for students. I no longer teach, but I now have many of my former students on my Facebook (I no longer use MySpace). I'm ok with that (nearly all have graduated), but it raises tricky questions, and I had some of those kids on my Facebook before I left teaching. I have never put ultra-private or TMI info on my Facebook, and I never use it for photos (those go on Picasa–which allows public/private distinctions–or Flickr–ditto), but I still struggle with these decisions. I'll have old classmates from high school over a decade ago "friending" me when they hadn't spoken to me but half a dozen times in four years of school. On the one hand, I could just ignore them (I do if I don't have a clear memory of them). On the other hand, they could lead to potential sources or be a sounding board for my work… so do I set up two Facebook accounts, one of my distinctly personal good friends and one more public? I don't know…

As a journalist, as a teacher, as a lover of online social networking, as a Facebook-Twitter-LinkedIn-Flickr-former MySpace user, and as a naturally social person… these are all difficult decisions.

By: Tara

Tara — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 21:08:00 +0000

By: randomness

randomness — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 17:40:24 +0000

I agree with AG

By: randomness

randomness — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 17:40:00 +0000

I agree with AG

By: TheJennTaFur

TheJennTaFur — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 03:55:55 +0000

I make it impossible for people who know me on the real to find me online. Going private on twitter was a MUST for me! But then I am trifling for my *screen names* change from one community to the next. It is just a part of my quirkiness in me sharing parts of myself online! Thanks for sharing as always!

By: TheJennTaFur

TheJennTaFur — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 03:55:00 +0000

By: Felipe

Felipe — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 07:24:11 +0000

You didn’t get it yet? It is mentally unhealthy to mix undiscriminately with people. It takes years of personal effort, discipline, values, and emotional balance to develop yourself as a positive individual. Most people don’t want to make that effort, thus, they stay somewhere on the path, trying to compensate their mental unbalances and distortions at your expense. Most people have an I.Q of 68, you need to run away from that. Bye, and don’t talk to me, I don’t care, won’t read it.

By: Felipe

Felipe — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 07:24:00 +0000

By: AG

AG — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 02:16:44 +0000

I dunno.. Perhaps I’m not overly concerned. Methinks that once you make an effort to give others the right to infer things about your bytes of data, undertandably privacy diminishes. There are some ways that you can help safeguard your anonymity. All is not lost.

By: AG

AG — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 02:16:00 +0000

By: j. brotherlove

j. brotherlove — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:37:17 +0000

After using Twitter for over a year, I’ve recently gone to private as well. As a freelancer, I don’t have the same work concerns. But I know it’s a small world and the reality is I don’t want to have to think about who is reading my wide range of updates.

Also, I’ve never been comfortable with the fact that Google crawls Twitter (really well). I see no good reason why tweets need to be cached in a search engine outside of the application.

Lastly, I grew tired of blocking bots and obnoxious folks. I’ll admit, it feels a bit odd since I’m fairly public online but I think this is a sign of social networking to come.

By: j. brotherlove

j. brotherlove — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:37:00 +0000

Also, I’ve never been comfortable with the fact that Google crawls Twitter (really well). I see no good reason why tweets need to be cached in a search engine outside of the application.

Lastly, I grew tired of blocking bots and obnoxious folks. I’ll admit, it feels a bit odd since I’m fairly public online but I think this is a sign of social networking to come.

By: Lynne d Johnson

Lynne d Johnson — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:03:07 +0000

See, once I decided to come online with my personal site, I made a decision to be transparent. But the truth is, I’m not totally so (I share very limited details about my personal life online). On my blog, on Twitter, on FaceBook, on MySpace, wherever — I don’t divulge great detail about my habits outside of music, media, and technology interests. An occasional I went to dinner here or the movies there, yes. So for me, it hasn’t been a serious problem. But then the unthinkable happened, I made the mistake of inviting my entire gmail address book to follow me on Twitter. I was a little concerned and awkward feeling at first, but again realized, I don’t get overly personalize online.

With that said, I think these sites need to think about privacy a little more. Some sites often don’t readily make information available that you can control how people follow you (or don’t have the same standards as flickr, which I think rocks). Mostly, I let everything in all my Web spaces publish to the public at large, yet on certain sites (Flickr, Facebook, and a couple others) I only friend people I’ve known in some way or know about. Not simply everyone in my address book. Does a business partner need to see the photos I posted of my holidays? In this case, Plaxo lets you connect to people as business, friends, and family contacts on its pulse, but if you forget to set the privacy options, there you are all open.

I was interested in waiting until you posted this, because I’m still torn about the Twitter account. I’m not following everyone who is following me, but a lot of people are following me. I think lately, it’s caused me to pull back a little bit.

By: Lynne d Johnson

Lynne d Johnson — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:03:00 +0000

By: pea

pea — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 06:57:13 +0000

I choose not to lock my updates because I post the updates on the blog for those people who can’t be bothered to use Twitter. A few months ago though, while looking at the fact that 60 some people were following me, many of whom I didn’t know, I got fed up and just deleted the account. “Why not just block them all?” someone asked me. I don’t know. It just seemed easier to crash and burn and start over again. It’s a weird thing to publish one’s thoughts online and be worried about how public it can be, but I’ve learned to just go with what feels right.