Social Networks: Store or Castle?

Ok, most of you are familiar with either social network utility Myspace or Facebook. I am guessing that more are familiar with Facebook, since in the last year the number of "friends" I have has tripled or almost quadrupled.

With so many people on, it has become QUITE obvious that different people view, and hence treat, these utilities in very different ways. This was brought starkly to my attention in the last couple of months.

Some people treat these virtual social networks as a general store. Anybody can go in, browse around and just see other people that they know. A gathering place to just "see" anybody you might have ever known in your whole life.

On the other hand, there are those who view these networks as a castle. They view their homepage as their home. The privacy settings are walls, moats, drawbridges; things to discourage the common riffraff from just coming in and tracking in dirt. Friends are always welcome, but it isn't a museum for everybody.

When these two outlooks come into contact, one of two things happens. Either the drawbridge stays up and the "general store" person feels like they have been denied a right and their feelings are hurt, or the "castle owner" feels like somebody is invading their privacy by "acquaintances" banging on the walls repeatedly saying "let me in!"

Thankfully Facebook is full of settings that allows something in the middle that makes everybody not unhappy, most of the time.

So be prepared; the castle is changing ;-)