Facebook

It has been two years since I joined Facebook. I still remembered my reluctance to accept my friend's invitation to join this social-networking site at the very beginning. Why? One reason – one of the big ones – is the anxiety of my space being invaded.

It's a thorny question. We're looking for ways to link with our distant friends. And yet, we might not want certain people (oh, say, our parents) to access our profile page. No matter how many times we hear the stories of Facebook users being caught as a result of their online pictures (for possession of alcohol, defacing a national monument, or any monkey business you can imagine), most of us keep on publishing our personal lives and tastes without a second thought.

Which brings me to a recent New England Journal of Medicine Perspective article about practicing medicine in the age of Facebook. That, in itself, is a remarkable essay of Facebook etiquette, reminding us the possibility of posting items on networking sites that might reflect poorly on us and the medical profession. In practice, doctors and medical students have been taught to be discreet in disclosing information. Matters aren't so straightforward when we surf the social-networking sites. We might simply assume that we're wearing Harry Potter's Invisibility Cloak in front of a computer screen. The next thing we know - God forbid - we're naked.