LOL. I actually get asked in interviews why I don't have a personal Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and so on account.
"Ah, so you've tried to find these accounts, and probably also searched Google?"
- "Yes, of course."
"That is the exact reason why I don't have these accounts. What happens in my private life is my own business, and you don't need LinkedIn to read my resumé as I've mailed it to you as requested."
Mostly, the answer is something akin to: "Hm... uh... yes. Moving on...."
Sometimes I get asked: "So, don't you frequent any forums, about your hobbies, or about computers, with regard to work?"
Then the answer is: "Yes, I do, actually. However, my nickname is not the same on all forums. On some, it is. But even if you know one or more of them, you won't find any information that is of use to you. Everything you will be able to find, be it under my name or my nickname, is stuff that I'd tell you right here, too."
I have observed that some people actually seem to regard such answers as hostile, as if you have something to hide.
I however, see it as just being a private person. I do not put anything on the internet that I don't want you to know. As said: even if you know my real name, or one or more of my nicknames, you can only find stuff that I'd tell you right on the spot if there's a reason to.
In that case, the friendship would be over for me. You can contact me in more than one way:
1, 2: Mobile / SMS (same number for almost 15 years already)
3: My (very old) provider's e-mail, that I still forward.
4: Private e-mail on my own domain
5: On MSN Network (yes, still)
6: Use a PM, on a whole bunch of forums
7: If you have to, you can write a letter. I will answer it. And yes, I'll use a fountain pen to do it.
On MSN, only one person is still regularly online. Maybe we'll both replace that with GTalk. (Not that anything beside the login data is filled out in the MSN profile...) I refuse to add any other way of communication. 6 ways to be reached is more than enough. (7 if you count the letter, but the last person to do this has been years back.)
Since 1998, I can be directly reached in at least 3 different ways at all times. Before that, you could reach me in only two ways, and one of them was indirect: by talking directly to me, or hoping I was at home when you called my parent's landline.
The reason that I don't add any other ways of communication is quite simple: I don't trust them.
If I actually finish the book I've started someday, and then get around to publishing it and awe-ing the entire world with my genius in creating literature (*cooouuugh, choke*), then I'll probably create some social networking accounts as, the author of the book... being "John Smith" or "Jan Janssen"
