But, the changes have got me thinking about other changes in Facebook from December as well as other social sights as well as with my own thinking about privacy. Facebook basically appeared to do a 180 degree turn in their thinking. What used to be a very closed network that only allowed first folks from one school ever increasingly morphed into a site that only those with a “dot edu” email address and then full tilt when into encouraging well, the entire universe to join. The founder of Facebook basically has said that “privacy is over“.

I hope he is wrong.

I am not thrilled with 100% open with no privacy. I want to have control over what I want to share. And, if you give me enough time I usually get comfortable with it. I started out on Twitter and protected my tweets. Eventually I decided to open it up to all to see. While many social network types seem to think that if you don’t open your tweets you are not “worthy” to follow. I have also read some pretty good reasons on why someone would not want to open up their tweets.

It’s all good.

Different streaks for different freaks, I always say.

The point is, on Twitter you have that control. So far on Facebook, you do have some control But, the controls are much more granular and much more, shall we say, complicated. On something like Twitter, the binary of YES or NO is pretty easy. Facebook becomes shades of gray very quickly: “Let’s see, I want my family to see that I am a fan of HGTV but I don’t want my co-workers to see what 80s hair band best fits my name”. Hmmmmm?”

But, if the privacy controls are too hard to use, way too open upon creation of an account and more opt-in for increased privacy rather than opt-out for increased openness, then I am thinking that will become a “count me out” opt-in for this girl.

It might be all about control and my friends and family will be the first to tell you that I certainly enjoy things my way. But, in the case of privacy, that should be the case all of the time. Privacy should be MY way on any site.

So, check your Facebook settings. Organize friends into groups and apply settings for each group. Take yourself out of search if that is what you want.

Need more help? I like this guide as a starting point and this one does a good job of helping you think through the options as well.

Image: ‘Privacy is not a crime‘

Presenting my faves for the end of 2009 and the end of the first decade of the 2000s (naughties? noughties? oughts? aughts? What did we call them?)

DJ Earworm – United States of Pop 2009

NPR All Songs Considered Best Music of 2009
I always find new music via NPR’s All Songs Considered

Lifehacker’s Most Popular Hive Five Topics of 2009
Crowdsourcing has grown in popularity, easy and usefulness. And why not? It usually works!

Entertainment Weekly’s Best of 2009 (highs and lows)
Since this is my guilty pleasure reading at the gym, I felt that I must put it in here

The Top 10 Everything of 2009  and the Best Movies, TV, Books and Theater of the Decade from Time Magazine
well, they said everything…

Top 10 Internet Moments of the Decade from ABC News

And, for good measure, I just had to use the “My Year in Status” application in Facebook to build a status collage for 2009.

I also had to go visit Wordle and do something there with my blog posts from 2009. And, here it is.

Part of the official parts of my job is to be technical support for the faculty and staff at my school. In all of my previous jobs, I have always been the unofficial technical support mostly because I was one of the first to use it and one of the first who understood it enough to explain it to others. Beyond my work life, I have also become the “go to” girl for tech support for many of my friends as well. You don’t get the nickname “Computer Girl” (as I was christened by one friend) without some geek cred, I would think.

It has been rare when I find myself on the other side of a technical support issue. By the time I actually break down and call a tech support line, I have exhausted all other possibilities. I have done the obvious (and sometimes the ridiculous) testing, rebooting, Google research, etc. It’s a pride thing, I suppose.

So, when my Twitter account suddenly was no longer “findable” via search or when I used hashtags (those phrases that begin with # that are often used to tag a tweet about an event like a conference), I was concerned. Since I am supposed to be coordinating the “twitterverse” for two upcoming conferences, I was getting more and more worried about my account being broken. I searched for suggestions and looked through the FAQ at the support site for Twitter and, of course, opened a support ticket with them. Nothing seemed to be working.

Then, I found a Twitter support person on Twitter. I started following him and then sent a direct plea his way. He became my “go to guy” and shortly after that, he send me a message back telling me all was well. And, it was!

I am grateful that he fixed the issue. Even more, I am grateful to be reminded of what it is like to feel out of control and unable to solve a technical problem and what it feels like to find someone who can, who does and does it well. I will use that as a reminder to keep doing what I do for my friends and co-workers and try to do it well, quickly and without complaint.

Thanks @lukester for that!

I just found these flowcharts from Eating the Road blog. They just might help with those life decisions like what cereal to eat or what fast food to choose or what is the truth?

What other flowcharts are out there?

50 Great Voices: Help Us Choose : NPR

And, on the day that I did my voting, here is the way the cookie crumbled: