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Usually the first question I get asked when someone friends me on Facebook is “Who is Bart Fargo”? Last year a reporter from the Washington Post did an article on teachers with pages on Facebook or Myspace.  Some of the teachers in this article were very young and just out of college. It can be hard to make that transition from college senior to working professional. Regrettably three of these teachers were fired because of the content of their web pages, one of whom worked in my school district.  I am sure the reporter still has a job.

I decided that the best thing to do was to avoid the whole mess and create a pseudonym for my Facebook presence. I don’t do this because I feel anything I do is immoral or unprofessional.  I do it because it is easy for things that you did not post or say to find their way onto your “profile” and this can give people the incorrect impression that you either posted it yourself or tacitly approve of it.

So who then is Bart Fargo?

Bart Fargo is a character from a 1967 low budget spy movie that  was called “Danger, Death Ray” in America and was subsequently the subject of an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.  It seemed an obscure enough name to distance my “Facebook” me from my “ME” me.

I hope this clears it up for you.