Perhaps it's a way to try to recapture some semblance of my youth, but I've recently joined the Facebook crowd. My wife has been working with Facebook and some other online social communities, and after seeing a few other folks I know make comments about Facebook, I thought I'd give it a try. If nothing else, it's a bit of entertainment and time-killing, right?

Turns out that there are a lot more people that I associate with out on Facebok than I thought. And I've managed to send a few of my peers that way, too, to see what it's all about. In fact, both of you who are reading this blog might be interested to know that I've chosen this blog, my truly personal blog, as the feed for my Notes on Facebook.

Using my personal blog as the feed on Facebook might take a few of my peers by surprise, as they know me from more professional settings. In fact, I read a couple of posts on an e-mail discussion group about using Facebook as a business networking medium. Well, not me. I'm doing it strictly for entertainment. I'm not taking it seriously (quite frankly, how can you take it that seriously when the average age of the Facebook community hasn't even made it out of adolescence yet?) and as such, I'm not putting much business-related content in there at all. Sure, I've joined a couple of "business" groups on the 'book, but I'm not going to be conducting "serious" business on the site.

Why?

Because there's more to me than my "business" side. I've got an unusual sense of humor. I love to pull practical jokes. I used to have a rather interesting selection of clothing (most of which has been retired, much to my wife's relief). I have an off-the-wall set of earrings that I like to pull out occasionally. I don't get to express my "personal" side very often when dealing with the "business" community, and I like having another outlet for that. Am I concerned that some of my business associated may see the "real" side of me and cast doubts on my abilities as a professional? No. First, if someone is looking at Facebook as a serious business tool, I think they've missed the mark a little. Second, if people don't get that there's a "business" face and a "personal" face to almost every person out there (or they don't have those two sides themselves), they're not going to be people that I'm going to be that interested in dealing with anyway.

So if you want to make fun of me for doing something a little different and exploring Facebook, go right ahead. It's part of what makes me me, and that's what you get when you get the whole package. Or you can just jump in and have some fun online, too. Hell, why not?