I’ve gone back and forth on social networks for years. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Friendster, Flixster, Last.fm, Classmates—the list goes on and on. I couldn’t decide if there was really any value in them for me, and what about my privacy? Most of the social networks’ privacy policies are difficult to read, and many appeared to actually give the companies ownership of my information. Why should I agree to that?

In 2005, I decided to give one a try. After all, millions of people must be using these sites for some reason. I joined LinkedIn, mainly because my husband had joined and found it useful for keeping up business contacts and networking. I made a profile, but because of my fears about privacy and my general wariness, I gave LinkedIn the absolute minimum amount of information I could. Not surprisingly, I wasn’t contacted by (or linked to) anyone, and I saw very little value in it. My husband, however, filled out a detailed profile and linked to a number of respected friends and colleagues, and he began receiving messages from recruiters with job possibilities.

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