Bad Blogger

Facebook's "25 Things About Me" meme seems harmless enough; people write 25 facts about themselves and post them on their Facebook pages, just as they do with videos, status updates and photos of last weekend's party. An estimated 5 million of these notes — that's 125 million facts — have appeared on the website within the past week. Assuming it takes someone 10 minutes to come up with their list, this recent bout of viral narcissism has sent roughly 800,000 hours of worktime productivity down the drain.

Most people aren't funny, they aren't insightful, and they share way too much. Facebook is a loose social network; a "friend" on Facebook might translate to someone you'd barely recognize in real life.

Below are 25 facts I wish people hadn't told me about themselves. They come from friends, friends-of-friends, friends-of-friends-of-friends and coworkers. They are all real, though I wish some of them were not.

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Lately it’s been popular to post "25 Random Things About Me" on Facebook and other social networking sites. Although it can be harmless fun I’ve discovered that many people are not exercising caution in what they post. Kinda hard to believe isn’t it? So here is my list of "25 Random Reasons I Won’t Tell You 25 Random Things About Me"

1. You don’t need to know 25 random things about me
2. Privacy on the Internet is already bad enough and doesn’t need help
3. I’ve seen too many of my friends tell things about themselves that the rest of the world doesn’t need to know
4. I’ve learned things about them that could be used against them
5. I’ve learned enough to become them on other social networking sites
6. I’ve learned enough about a couple of them to quiet possibly open an credit card account in their name
7. I’ve learned enough about them to guess usernames on other sites
8. I’ve learned enough about them to be able to guess passwords or password hints on other sites
9. I’ve learned enough about some of their friends to do the same
10. I’ve learned enough about them to wonder why I was friends with them in the first place.
11. I’ve learned enough about their friends to make me glad I’m not their friend
12. I have learned enough about privacy and the insecure nature of the internet not to post too much about myself for the world to see
13. I’ve seen too many cases where simple, "harmless" facts have been used to hack accounts
14. There are plenty of random things about me that I just don’t want the world to know
15. Some of those things may make my friends wonder why they were ever my friend
16. Most people make it easy enough to find out random things about themselves without posting them on the internet
17. I’ve worked hard to build a good reputation on the internet and don’t want so ruin it in a moment of unguarded fun
18. Remember, much of what you post (if not all) can be seen by not only your friends but your friends friends also.
19. Even if you make it private vulnerabilities in web sites often lead to private being public.
20. Once you post it to the internet you can never take it back
21. There is a good chance that someone will find it that you didn’t want to find it
22. It can be used against you in the future and may cost you a job or promotion
23. The things that I want people to know are already known
24. I’m trying hard to keep the rest of it out of the public eye (not that it’s bad, just being careful)
25. You probably don’t want to know 25 random things about me.