Public, Privat, Secret Media

While the debate about facebook and the high google ratings it gives is in full swing I remember a part of our discussion back at Hemavan, sweden earlier this year. We talked about public, privat and secret media. The distinction between these is not clear to all users yet. As in they are not yet ABLE to distinguish in public, privat and secret domains, they do not know HOW to do so. People are only just beginning to learn about the consequences of being in social domains.. sharing information, thoughts and personal stuff.. without knowing how to close the gate on one and open in on the other. In social media domains, we like to portray ourselves.. most of the time from our best side or most exciting side anyway.
At the same time we like to communicate with people we know, familiar people, relatives and friends. All ties that differ in closeness and trust. BUT at the same time, newbees cannot yet distinguish what part of their communication is disclosed to the open net and what part is not. The tools on how to do that are not yet fully grasped. Maybe we can help a lot if we just give people the choice between these three options: Do you want this conversation or information to be public, privat or secret. It might be a format we can get used to relatively easy..