I won't 'friend' someone online if I wouldn't be friends in real life.

I haven't warmed to the idea of becoming Facebook friends with politicians, sources, subjects, and flaks. I really do not need them to know about my recent trip to Walla Walla for a bit of wine tasting. Nor do they need to read the spirited banter between my college friends and me.

This separation between who I am during working hours and who I am at home is important. It keeps me sane. I do not want to talk about or be lobbied on the state budget or the ferry system away from work.

Dividing myself in two was easy until I got on Facebook. About a year ago a friend of mine in New York sent me a Facebook invitation through my personal email address. She was having fun with Facebook and thought that I should join.

It took about eight months for my professional life to worm its way into what had been a personal activity. I had become friends with some colleagues at The Seattle Times. All of them were people I consider friends outside of cyberspace. What I was not ready for were "friend" requests from politicians. The first such request came from Ron Sims, the long time King County executive who is joining the Obama administration. I let him sit in the request bin for weeks before deciding to reject his request and any others from sources, subjects, and politicians.

As Ron's smiling profile picture stared at me I realized that I thought that there would be too many complications in allowing the county executive or any other politician into my inner circle. I would never be personal friends with Sims in the real world. So why would I in cyberspace?

It came down to what I was comfortable with. Simply put, I was not comfortable granting a professional contact access to my personal life. Even among friends, I measure my words about public policy. I would be even more restrained if politicians were alerted to my every Facebook thought or action. I really do not need a comment I made on Facebook used against me by a politician or flak.

Facebook has proven useful as a way of engaging my friends with the Times. Some are avid readers; others are not. I post everything I write and always receive some response from friends. That rarely happened before Facebook.

So far I have rejected the idea of creating a work profile or using privacy settings to limit what non-friends can see on my profile. The duplication seems a bit much, and I do not want to go through and consider what my nearly 200 friends can and cannot see.

I have not completely shut out politicians, sources, and flaks. I started a Twitter account for my professional persona. This allows me to share nothing more than what I write with a group of people who only know the working me.

I do not believe a new tool like Facebook should force me to change my efforts to separate my professional self from my personal self. I would bet that Sims agrees and probably is not upset that he does not know what I had for dinner last night.

Ryan Blethen is the editorial page editor of The Seattle Times. Email rblethen@seattletimes.com

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