As I've recently been browsing the pages of my friends on Facebook, a particular theme has surfaced: Facebook, though unintentionally, promotes accountability.
I really don't believe this is intentional. Facebook, Myspace, Blogger, Twitter and other social networking sites promote individuality and creative expression, but accountability? C'mon. Facebook's the place where you can create an image for yourself. You can list music, quotes and books to define your personality. You can put your best face on, at least in the photographs you choose to post. Witty status updates? Post as many as you can think up. Facebook's like a high-school yearbook page that you can dress up any way you like.
So how does Facebook promote any type of accountability?
I've noticed that my pastor is on Facebook. So is my insurance agent. So are school teachers. And business owners. Even my mom is on Facebook. It's in their profiles that they've carefully edited what information and photos they post. And this makes sense. In a week's time you can have twenty new friends on Facebook. It can take over your life, really. I've seen people that update their Facebook status almost hourly. In this out-of-control, addictive environment (which I play along with), it can be easy to forget who your audience is. We have to be careful what we share online. I work in the field of ministry, so I better be careful as to what photos and information I post. The next time I run across a YouTube video of that profanity-laced Dr. Dre song that I liked in high school, I'll have to think twice before embedding it on my Facebook wall. And that's exactly how Facebook promotes accountability.
We love to share fun information and pictures with our family and friends through Facebook. Though in doing so, we also subconsciously make careful decisions as to what information and pictures we choose to share. We have to put on our best face, just in case our second-grade school teacher looks at our Facebook page. It's kind of fun to think about. We want to have a page that shows our true colors, but Facebook also causes us to examine those colors, just in case they're a little inappropriate. What an ironic quandary Facebook has become.
Still, this accountability issue is a good thing. We should always be aware of what we say and what things we're associated with. I'm just thinking we didn't expect Facebook to become a cyber-mom watching over us.
