Online social networks are kinda scary. For one, there are the corporations behind the scenes. I think I understand a little about why they’d want to protect themselves - the Internet is global, so they’re global corporations - but assuming ownership over other people’s content is more than a little shady. If someone left a comment on my blog and wanted to later delete it, I wouldn’t say “No, I own it now and you gave me person to do whatever I wanted with it when you left it on my site.” I’d probably just go ahead and delete it. After all, my blog is mainly about my opinion. Sure, I want blog about things to make people react and interact - if I didn’t, I probably wouldn’t blog.
I’ve been a freelancer for a while now, but one without a real strategy for how to make it actually work. I’m rethinking that strategy a bit. Part of it involves touching up my own site and developing more of a presence on sites like LinkedIn. I’ve had an account there for years now, but can count on one hand the times I logged in. It just didn’t seem like either anything worth putting energy into or that I wanted to manage.
Which brings me to the other side of online social networks - managing the connections I make with other people. That’s even more difficult for me; I can delete my account from a corporation’s site much more easily than I can click a button that instantly defines both me and the person on the other end as less than the friends we once were. But people change - and sometimes people grow apart. I hate having to be the person to say “Look, what’s going on between us?” but that has a way of falling into my lap much more often than not. Sometimes, it’s just too much.
Maintaining my LinkedIn account (which I’ll link to once I’ve edited my profile) is primarily about being available for freelance gigs, but there’s still a person on the other side of that account that I’m linking to - or that I choose not to link to. Not quite the same as less business-related social networks, but still not the same as dealing with a faceless corporation. I know that I’ll just have to take it one step at a time.
