Facebook = life?

There are twenty-something thousand people working for the BBC at the moment, it was twenty six thousand but with staff cuts I’m not sure what the exact number is.

Anyway, a quick check has just shown that there are 14,027 people in the British Broadcasting Corporation network on Facebook – that’s people with a BBC e-mail address and so BBC staff (even if that’s freelancers).

So more than half of people working for the BBC are on Facebook – I’ve recently had a friend request from my boss – luckily he’s a good bloke and I don’t mind having him see my profile – but in other cases that might make you a little worried.

With My Space it was a bit of my life that wasn’t really my life, it was a different side of me than I show while I’m working as it was the side that was into alternative/punk music and loved going to gigs – on Facebook I need to be grown up (apart from the odd food fight) and it has become an extension of ‘work/life’.

I’ve been a member of Facebook for a while but just pretty much ignored it as nobody I knew was on – in the last couple of months that has changed completely.

Now one of the first things everyone at work does it check Facebook – often to send a message to the person sitting next to them – but thats no different to the age old send someone an e-mail then phone to make sure they got the e-mail and then send an IM to make sure they understood the phone-call.

I love my social networks, I’ve admitted in the past to having a bit of an addiction to them – but Facebook seems to be more than just a social network, or at least it’s more than a social network that takes you away from real life – it’s a place where I’m friends with people I actually know – which is just weird.

It’s a place where I’m friends with people I work in the same building as – god even my wife is on Facebook – she’s not my friend yet though – she’s lost her username and password.

Add me as a friend if you like – I want to get a bit of sanity back into my Facebook friends list – a few people I’ve only met virtually for a change – god how the internet is making my local life even more local!

My Facebook Profile (this should work) >