It pays to manage Facebook account to suit your needs

In the past few days, I've been reminded of just how prevalent Facebook has become, for good or bad:

* The popular social networking site gradually rolled out yet another redesign of its home page, and as my friends noted it (some of them complained about it) I kept checking back to see if it had gotten to me yet.

* An online acquaintance of mine -- a woman from out of town whom I know through mission work -- suddenly disappeared from Facebook, and several of our mutual friends tried to figure out what had happened. I figured it was a glitch related to the web redesign, but it turns out a friend had told her that Facebook was a good way to get computer viruses and she impetuously cancelled her account. She later returned, just as suddenly as she had disappeared. I haven't gotten the whole story, but I assume that people told her that you can use Facebook safely for basic status updates and communication; from my knowledge, viruses and worms primarily come from clicking on unfamiliar links or unknown applications.

* A T-G co-worker had written a news story after hours and needed to send it in. Her web-based e-mail was down, but she could still get to Facebook, so she tried sending it to me as a private message on Facebook.

* I'm in rehearsals for a play, and one of the things we talked about Monday night was setting up a Facebook page to promote it. I offered to do so, only to discover that one of my fellow cast members had beaten me to it.

* I noticed a strange name had commented on one of my links and wondered if I had my privacy settings where I wanted them. It turns out everything was OK -- the comment was on the original item, which had been on a friend of mine's Facebook account, and was by one of his friends.

I run into people who are crazy about Facebook and other people who insist that they will never, in a million years, sign up for an account. I find that for me, a moderate approach works best. I'm on Facebook, and I enjoy using it to post links and status updates and to keep up with friends and family members, including classmates or distant cousins I haven't seen in years. When I make a post to my personal blog or change my Twitter status, my Facebook status gets updated too.

But I'm extremely selective about applications and add-ons. I allow a few applications (can someone say "Wordscraper"?), but not many, and I don't automatically accept or pass along every kitchy little virtual gift or group invitation sent to me by my friends. I also don't list my birthday on Facebook. I've gotten a little more selective lately about accepting friend requests, and I may even go back and do a little pruning of my friend list.

The point is, Facebook is an extremely flexible tool, which can be used in a number of ways. You need to make up your own mind exactly what types of participation are right for you, set your own ground rules, and make it work for you. If you've never tried Facebook, you might be surprised how much you enjoy it and how many friends you can connect with. But make sure that you're controlling your Facebook account and not the other way around.

--John I. Carney is city editor of the Times-Gazette and covers county government. He is also the author of the self-published novel "Soapstone." His personal web site is lakeneuron.com.