This is an issue I’ve grappled with too.

I suppose I’m in the camp that says one persona doesn’t necessarily fit all.

After all, in pre-Web times (yes, yes, THAT long ago), the persona I presented to my friends down the pub, the things I said and the way I said them, was quite different to the one I presented to my employer.

And even down the pub, I might have presented different personas depending on who I was in the pub with.

Similarly with the work context, I’ve had jobs where I’ve felt comfortable revealing a good deal of my personal life to colleagues and managers, and I’ve had jobs where I’ve felt much more cautious.

That doesn’t have to be because I’m “worried” about some “repercussions” based on what I say; it may just be that I don’t think it’s any of their business.

I also don’t think it’s as simple as a binary personal/professional or private/public thing (even a blurred binary thing!), and we actually present several different personas.

And currently at least, many social networking tools are ill-equipped to provide that sort of flexibility.