Q. What do Facebook and alcohol have in common?
A. They both reduce your inhibitions.
I guess that, like a lot of people my age, many of my early Facebook “friends” are actually current or ex work colleagues.
In an office environment it can take weeks, months or even years to develop a level of familiarity with a colleague that is anything akin to genuine friendship. Even then there’s a level of familiarity beyond which working relationships just don’t go.
Not so on Facebook.
Whilst I obviously maintain an appropriate level of professional detachment whilst socially networking, I’ve noticed that interaction between friends (i.e. work colleagues) and friends of friends (i.e. colleagues of colleagues) can move from familiar to very familiar to mildly flirtatious and beyond at a pace that would be unheard of in an office environment.
None of these people are hiding behind Second Life alter egos. It’s their real life selves interacting (for which read flirting) with real life colleagues that they’ll see in real life the next day.
I know several people who would be worried if their partner saw their Facebook profile. Not because anything bad is really happening, but because some of the content would be hard to explain to anyone unfamiliar with what is clearly a different set of rules.
A. People tend to underestimate or deliberately play down their level of consumption.
This applies equally to the number of alcohol units consumed in a week, and to the extent to which spare time is consumed by Facebook.
Behind every “I’m not that fussed” you can bet there’s a beautifully manicured, regularly updated, application-heavy profile who’s owner spends hour upon dark hour cultivating their friends, groups and wall posts.
Personally I’m not that fussed.
What are you doing after work?