Jessica Elgot

Facebook personalised usernames are here, and cue hundreds of pointless facebook statuses about how they’re an invasion of privacy. It’s a real swing towards MySpace, because personalised usernames were one of it’s very few benefits. It’ll also show which of my Facebook friends should be up for a cull if they change they’re usernames to fluffi_gurl_sparkle_2002

But it intrigued me because I’ve recently started putting my Twitter account on my emails and on my CV because I like what it says about how tech-savvy I am, and because I use it for a lot of journalism research on networking. And I wondered, if and when I acquire www.facebook.com/jessica.elgot or whatever, whether I’ll be tempted to put that up too. After all, if employers are interested in what kind of a person I am, what I read, what I listen too, the kind of writing I do, (which I’m not necessarily sure they are) then it’s all on my facebook page, and there’s nothing on there I’m embarrassed about.

Facebook HQ has this to say about the unique usernames

From the beginning of Facebook, people have used their real names to share and connect with the people they know. This authenticity helps to create a trusted environment because you know the identity of the people and things on Facebook. The one place, though, where your identity wasn’t reflected was in the Web address for your profile or the Facebook Pages you administer. The URL was just a randomly assigned number like “id=592952074.” That soon will change.

We’re planning to offer Facebook usernames to make it easier for people to find and connect with you. When your friends, family members or co-workers visit your profile or Pages on Facebook, they will be able to enter your username as part of the URL in their browser. This way people will have an easy-to-remember way to find you. We expect to offer even more ways to use your Facebook username in the future.

 

How the usernames will change

 

When did it become acceptable to share our social networking? There’s been much in the press in months gone by about the unethical nature of employers snooping on Facebook to check out our drunken photos, which bear no reflection on how good a journalist I am (it’s a stressful job dammnit!)

But social networking is the future, and if I can use my facebook profile as my personal PR assistant, along with my blog and my twitter, while also enjoying them as exciting web tools for personal enjoyment, then maybe I’ll try out sticking my new Facebook page on my emails for all to see. Might need to do some serious detagging first though. And there is such a thing TMI…

UPDATE: Techcrunch reports that “key journalists” will have Facebook usernames reserved for them. *Sigh* Oh to be a key journalist…

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NOTE TO FUTURE EMPLOYERS: Of course there’s nothing shifty on my facebook. I never once got drunk, or wore fancy dress while I was a student. I sat in the library and thought about journalism.