The latest fad, the pass-it-forward viral game ‘25 Random Things About Me’ has hit the 150-million-strong Facebook nation, as they learn some fascinating and some not-so-fascinating things about their friends.
 
More artful and less threatening than a mutating chain letter, a friend sends you 25-Things as a Facebook note, with that friend posting 25-facts about himself, then ‘tagging’ 25-people and asking them to do the same.
 
Snowballing, Brandee Barker, spokeswoman for Facebook says the number of daily ‘notes’ has more than doubled over the past week, with the number of daily tags of Facebook members in a note, growing five times.  She says: ‘I would say that anecdotally I’ve never seen a note spread as quickly as this has on Facebook.  What is really unique about this is it’s a really meaningful piece of content.  Some of the these notes are touching and frankly very insightful.’
 
And, unlike most unwanted and unsolicited e-mail chains, you can be certain everyone welcomes 25 Things, with Pete Hines, Vice President, Public Relations & Marketing at Bethesda Softworks saying it is his one of his favorite Facebook things, since it has helped him learn a lot about people he’s known for a long time, as well as, people he only knows a little.
 
In case, you wish to join in the 25 Random Things craze, Shelly Palmer, a media consultant recommends nothing should be put online that one would not want to see splashed on the front page of the newspaper, or wouldn’t want a potential client or boss to see.
 
With social networks representing a paradigm shift in the way people are communicating with each other, this is the beginning of social network games like this that will never end.  So true, as a new note: ‘A Bunch of Questions — Share’ is already appearing in Facebook pages.
 
However, a list of ‘25 random facts’, similar to the chain on the MySpace social networking website and that jumped to Facebook, could offer online predators easy access to extra personal information.  According to Pender County Detective Scott Lawson, a member of North Carolina ’s Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce that specializes in tracking cyber-criminals targeting minors, law enforcement has started tracking posts since January.
 
Detectives say people writing 25-things about themselves they wouldn’t ordinarily, from favorite foods to what cities they want to visit, is giving too much information and which can make one more vulnerable to stalkers or identity thieves.  Lawson warns those using social networking sites not to give too much personal information on their page, as even typing your address, birthplace, or birthday online, could be that you’ve typed too much.