Strange jobs are probably common, but I had to laugh and wonder about job discrimination the other day when I came across an odd job description for the regular, everyday job of copy writer. The ad on Craigslist seemed straightforward enough, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like a bit of discrimination.

A part-time, experienced channel editor/copywriter is needed for a social networking web site in San Francisco that focuses on hair loss lifestyle. Editors are needed in various categories, again, as they pertain to hair loss lifestyle. The categories include: Entertainment, travel, news and fashion (hats?).

Here's the part that caught my eye: "Preference given to those who live a hair loss lifestyle." So a bald writer will get preference over me, a man with a full head of hair? Is that fair? I understand that the company wants to hire someone who can best get their message across and knows what they're talking about, and as someone with a Don King type of hairdo if I let it grow for two months, I laughed out loud at the euphemism for being bald. But is putting that request in a job announcement akin to asking for writers who are white, female and have long, brunette hair?

Of the more than 150 "friends" I have on Facebook, I only talk on the phone to half a dozen. I break bread regularly with exactly one of them.

Although "social networking" is a hot buzzword right now, critics claim, rightly I think, that the premise discourages actual relationships in favor or the quick fix. In other words, real, face-to-face relationships take time to develop, are messy, and require some actual work. Social networking relationships are quick and painless -- you show your best face, divulge the version of your life you want your circle to see, and feel satisfied with the easy "information dump" once or twice to catch up, before your "friend" slides back into obscurity.

Don't miss the rest of our series on Overrated people, places and things!

Don't get me wrong. I spend a lot of time on my Facebook page. I enjoy downloading pictures of my kids for friends and colleagues to see and making clever conversation with selected individuals. Nobody wastes more time playing "Scrabulous" (even the compromised "approved" version now running) and sending cupcakes to various people. The operative word here is "overrated." I understand it for what it is: basically a networking tool (and a great way to fritter away time when I should be working.) Social networking is not the next generation of inter-connectivity. It is not going to solve the world's woes. It probably won't get you a date for Saturday night. Not a meaningful date, anyway.

The social networking evangelists are telling everyone to jump on board the social media train, especially if you're a small business owner. It's being hailed as the greatest thing since sliced bread, and a "must-do" for business owners, but I'm in favor of a more moderate approach. I want to share my personal experience with social media, and how it has (and has not) helped me grow my business.

For this article, my comments will refer to three types of social media:

• Blogging -- A site just like WalletPop, where articles are posted and comments from readers are often encouraged. Business owners will often write their own material, gearing it toward the interests of their clients.
• Twitter -- A kind of "mini blog" in which posts are limited to 140 characters, offering business owners an opportunity to do a quick update or link to an item of interest on another site.
• Social Networking – Sites like Facebook or MySpace, in which users create full-blown profiles of themselves and link to others to share contacts and information.

I work with social media on a limited basis, because I feel it has limited usefulness to a business owner. Some social networking evangelists will likely want to burn me at the stake for saying the usefulness is limited, but it's true.

I don't have a Twiiter, I've never had a Twitter, and I never will have a Twitter. But in a sign of social networking site's soaring popularity, and possibly of the apocalpse, the USA Today's business section has done a feature story on it.

For the uninitiated. here's a quick summary of how the site works: people sit at their computers (or cell phones/PDAs) and type what they're doing at that very moment -- watching a movie, driving, working, cooking, heart surgery, etc.

The site has grown exponentially in popularity over the past year, with a current rank of 939 on Alexa. That's good enough to make it one of the biggest destroyers of office productivity in the market. Here's the thing: if you're Tweeting about what you're doing, you're not really doing that. If you say "I'm cooking", that is not strictly speaking true. At that very moment you are Twittering.

Does it really surprise anyone that employers are cracking down on the use of social networking sites while at work? Much like pornography and eBay, those sites are best used when you're on your own time, not on your company's paid time.

I know, I know. Young workers need access to Facebook or Twitter like the rest of us need oxygen. It's essential to survival. How can you ever get through a day without knowing that your friend is on the way to the coffee shop to meet a friend or that your sister has just bought the cutest new shoes? Updates every few minutes are essential, because you are dying to know what everyone else is doing while you're... uh.... working. Yeah, working.

A survey in England found that employees are spending at least 30 minutes a day on Facebook or MySpace while they're supposed to be working. A couple of survey participants even admitted that they spend up to three hours a day on social networking sites while at work. Yikes.

Reuters is reporting that the 24th richest man in the world is planning on spending $150 million starting a magazine, web site and TV station called -- get ready -- Snob.

Snob has slightly a different meaning in Russia. They think of a snob as someone who has made a lot of money in life and is entitled to brag about it if they want. In America, of course, we see a snob as someone who looks down on others who aren't as rich or as classy, and thus, the rest of us tend to look down on snobs. At any rate, Andrei Shmarov, one of the billionaire creating Snob, told Reuters, "It's for people who are successful and those who want to be successful."

The web site will be out in June, the magazine in July, and it will focus on lifestyle, business and travel articles. The cable channel will follow shortly after that.

You signed up for FaceBook or MySpace and eagerly started filling in your profile. Name, check. City, check. Birth date, check. (Gotta have your friends send you happy wishes on your birthday, right?) Job history, check. Spouse, check. Throw in some pictures of yourself and the kids for good measure.

Except there's a catch. Every little bit of information that you add to your profile could be one more piece of the identity theft puzzle. And some information is more telling than you can imagine. Did you add your birth date? That's something that may be better left unpublished, as it is one critical piece of information that banks and credit card companies use to identify you.

Have you hooked up with some family members? That might give a clue to your maiden name, another potential identifier. Even worse... those socializing on genealogy websites might be sharing information like your mother's maiden name, another key piece of information for financial services companies.

Don't take my word for it. Computer security experts say that information shared on social networking sites leaves people very vulnerable to identity theft. And often they don't realize how much information they've shared until it's too late. Tread carefully when sharing information on any website. Before your share your life's story, ask yourself what an identity thief would be able to do with that information.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.