Its a question that’s been bothering me lately - but is Facebook evil? I mean the site can sap a whole half hour of my time without even trying and I don’t really get anywhere because of it. It also allows unscrupulous individuals to track my every conversation and friendship - since no one ever using the private messaging service and constantly writes on one another’s ‘wall’.

It can make breaking and making up a real hassle. There are people I know who feel that because of Facebook, their break-up has been made that much worse since the damned thing announces to the world with a little broken heart icon that you are ‘no longer in a relationship’. Unpleasant.

Now if a person has a blog and puts on it every last detail of his or her existence then so be it. In these cases the privacy has been voluntarily given up, but in the case of Facebook not so. most new sign-ups have no idea the extent to which their personal lives could potentially be spread far and wide among even people they don’t know very well.

So here are a few tips in reducing your Facebook footprint, to coin a phrase:

• Go into the Privacy tab on the left hand navigation panel, here you will find five Edit Settings buttons which allow you to control how much info you share automatically. By default these are set to pretty much share everything with anyone you have made your friend.
• Also in the Privacy tab you have the option to Block any people who you may know are on Facebook but whom you no longer wish to be able to see any trace of you. Here can also make sure that some people only see your Limited Profile, which is probably more useful.
• This one is important: in your Profile, don’t whatever you do put up your phone number or address! I’m serious this a stupid thing to do. email, blog address all of these are fine because they are online and not physically traceable to you. (I know a very scary true story regarding a pair of girls on MSN who entered their address into their profile and were visited by a 40 year old guy in their own homes whilst their mother sat downstairs.)
• Talk to people using the Send a Message link. These messages are private. Messaging via the wall is public and although this is fine for many things i’m always amazed at the things people say on their walls regarding plans to meet etc.
• Finally, don’t say anything you wouldn’t want anyone to read. When I say anyone I mean anyone. More and more people come onto these social networking sites everyday. Sooner or later your future boss, your girlfriend’s brother, your boyfriend’s housemate or even your Mum will go on there and see you saying what you did at the Union on Saturday or worse, someone else saying it. In the latter case it is not deletable or controllable and although you may think i’m over reacting isn’t it worth just a little care and due diligence to make sure you don’t post publicly your greatest confessions?

Well anyway, i’m done ranting for now. Just be careful. It doesn’t just go for Facebook but also for MySpace and a host of other social sites. It may feel like anonymous chit-chat but there are a growing number of cases in which such online tools were instrumental in someone getting fired or divorced or tracked down by someone unpleasant. Be careful, kiddiwinks.