Too Much Information online is becoming a widespread, cross-generation social dilemma, not just a teen online-safety issue (in fact, giving out personal information in itself isn’t the safety risk we all used to think it was – see this). For example, your teenaged child just reported details of last night’s parent-child argument in her blog; a friend posts a comment in his profile about your mutual past that you don’t really want your students or current employer to see; you just mortified your college-age child by calling and mentioning that you noticed in her Facebook profile that “she joined an online discussion group called ‘Heavy Drinking”; or “remember that day you called in sick? Your friend just posted pictures of you at the beach that day. Your boss got the story.” Some of the above are from a highly readable, slightly unnerving USATODAY piece on TMI. The good news is, both MySpace and Facebook – which together represent nearly 90% of US social networking – are about to add tools that will allow users to keep the online versions of their personal and professional lives separate.
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