The Facebook Delema - the temptation to be popular

I've joined Facebook and have a growing number of friends within my less than week membership. I'm struggling though with two things, the second of which may seem a contradiction to this blog.

Firstly, do I really need another form of communication in my life?
Secondly, do I want the 69 people who are currently listed as my friends to have access to personal details about my life?

The former is answered easily, no, I don't. However as some people use Facebook as the primary form of communication and staying "in touch" with people it does have the end product of a quicker and easier connect with them.

The latter... No - in honesty I don't. I'm uncomfortable with some people knowing about my life and having access to it. Not necessarily because I'm ashamed, but more so that this blog is an expression of my life which is at times quite personal. While I don't state many specifics, reading in between the lines you can gather quite a lot. Having acquaintances logging on to this section of my life is more uncomfortable then those who wander here periodically because they genuinely care about me or what I write - rather than the former friend or schoolmate who is looking for the latest goss.

So, with that having been said, I've taken the blog link off my Facebook page.

Which leads me to the title of this post: Facebook is a popularity contest. Yes, you want to be in contact with people who you count as your friends... but how many people do you honestly want to know that you're now single (which I recently saw on my news page as my friend had changed her relationship status). How many people do you Not people who log in to see how YOU are going, but just working on other things and see that at the same time?

I added my blog post with a vague, ill thought prideful action that more people might come to my blog and I'd get more dots on my visitor's wall - again - a popularity contest. Then I realised that I was actually thinking "oh, what will ... think about me if they read this", which is in direct opposition to the premise on which I write this blog: to be honest, both with myself and others and through that either encourage others, or look back in times to come and see my journey more clearly.

I know I'm contradicting myself here... with one breath I'm saying "blow what anyone else thinks, I'm going to stay the course I've set" and with another I'm second guessing my vulnerability.

Be all that as it may, I've limited my Facebook profile and taken my email address of it (for the first time ever I'm starting to get junk mail - I started getting it about 6 minutes after I joined up)