I have just finished reading an interesting guest post by Teresa Wu on Chris Brogan’s blog.
I agree with most of what has been written in the post, which might be a little bit strange to some people coming from myself as a “Gen Xer”.
However the subject about Transparency, don’t get me wrong, it’s great having photos of yourself on facebook/myspace/bebo or what ever social media platform you have an account on. However you have to think about what type of photos you are going to upload.
Sure put up photos of yourself enjoying yourself, but think if people want to see pictures of you throwing up because you’ve over indulged at the christmas party or in a compromising situation.
You are sitting here reading “Yeah we already know that.” Yet some of you still post photos that portray you in a less favourable light.
As a famous US saying goes “What goes on in Vegas, stays in Vegas”.
Tell me what you think.
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I know I made a case for transparency, but I agree with you. (And I don’t post pictures of myself in compromising situations, and detag or hide anything that’s questionable.)
But I do have to argue that especially as the younger generation gets older, it’ll be very difficult to hide all of that. People my age (20) only started putting our lives online when we were 12 or so, and even at that point the amount of information we were able to put up was limited. Now, kids are going online at age 5. Commenting and blogging and putting up picture. What will happen when they’re finally old enough to realize it will affect their professional life?
You make an excellent point about how to make it your own page, but no matter what you do online, it’ll come back to haunt you later in life…whether you’re applying for college, looking for a new job, networking, or simply running for office. Look at what happened with the future speechwriter for Barack Obama!
But social pages on Facebook, Myspace, etc. are fundamentally “personal”, but at the same time, it’s “professional” as well. Unfortunately we’re not all psychics and can’t predict what will happen in our lives, so while there are people who’d wanna post compromising photos for their friends to see from that last beer bash party, it’s unfortunate that they’d have to just simply resort to email or printing it out to share.
Will privacy settings help? Chances are they will minimize the risk of things you don’t want others to see being leaked, but nothing online is tamperproof.
Great post.
Thanks for the comments, keep them coming.
This have given me an idea for another blog post.
Watch this space
[...] 8, 2008 by wizard1974uk This is a follow up to Transparency in Social Media. View [...]
Teresa, you bring up an interesting point for conversation. Most people agree that parents should monitor their children’s online activity, but until what age is it appropriate?
I know people who have posted pictures of themselves smoking weed, drinking while under the age, and glorifying drugs. These things are common, but it’s stupid to broadcast them. Parents can lecture about online etiquette until their throats are dry, but what do you do when bad things happen?
With online expression comes an online reputation, whether you like it or not, and people need to be aware of how they’re perceived.
I’ve been careful about the content of my Facebook and Myspace accounts ever since I recently created a LinkedIn profile, a Twitter account, and a Blog. It’s annoying to self-censor, but it’s a necessary evil if you want your voice to be heard in the online world.
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