The Online/Offline Gap

Maybe it’s because I am working on my own recommendation system or because I keep my eyes open on all things. But recently I have started to see a larger and larger gap between my online and offline (real) life. For example just today Facebook suggested, I say hello to a co-student of mine.

I see Beno every day at the university. We greet each other every day. Even more, we actually talk to each other. I am not saying that Facebook’s suggestions are bad (they are…) but this just proves, that your online life (Facebook, Twitter or any other social networks) is not the same as your real or offline life.

Of course Facebook knows this. In my opinion, this is one of the reasons why Facebook moves more and more towards an open policy. Also this should make Facebook even more important. Or why else would they let you share all your photos with the world (and search engines like Google or Bing).
But for some reason, people do not really care about all this. They don’t care if embarrassing photos and videos show up online for the whole world to see. Or that stupid comments and wall posts are also fully available on the Internet. But the Internet never forgets… Not even if you control all your content on your own servers. Something I have to remember myself all the time.