Its Day 7 of the 30 blog posts in 30 days challenge, the start of another week and I almost couldn’t think of anything to blog today.

So thanks to Kathryn over at Librarians Matter who posted about what she is doing with Facebook in her post Why I didn’t quit Facebook …but could still be a dummy. It reminded me that I have been meaning to talk about what I’m doing there.

When Facebook made its changes, opening up user accounts even more, there was a huge outcry right across the Net. I saw it in blog posts, articles, on the news and particularly on Twitter and if nothing else it stopped and made me think.

How do I use Facebook. Do I use it at all? What for?

In the past I had my Twitter feed going to Facebook, but in the lead up to all the controversy, in cleaning up my Facebook account, I mistakenly deleted this feed and couldn’t get it working again immediately.

I didn’t think too much about it until I had a few online/real-world friends saying that there were missing me on Facebook.  (that was very sweet)  I also found that the people I am connected with on Facebook are very different to those I connect with on Twitter. Twitter is very much a library related network for me.

So I’m still on Facebook, because it gives me the means of keeping in touch with what is happening in the lives of non-library related people I know personally  – kind of like a daily update and gives me the opportunity to provide my own daily update to those same people.

I only check Facebook once a day, unless I need to reply to a comment, but I find that its enough for me. I have locked down my privacy settings as tight as I can without actually leaving Facebook. Minimal apps, photos and feeds coming from my other presences, rather than any concerted effort to add content there.  Still, I like being able to peek through that window to the world of my non-library friends.

And I’ve fixed that Twitter feed issue, so I still only have to say what I’m doing once.

I can fully sympathise with those who have pulled out of Facebook. Its not working for them, so they got out – good on them. But its working for me, even if only in a minimally interactive way, so I’m staying – for now at least.