I have mixed feelings about personal blogs and social websites. On one hand, I support all forms of self expression. On the other hand, these sites breed exhibitionism that isn't acceptable in person but somehow is online, and I can't help but judge people based on how they present themselves online. We all know that employers and universities have started checking these sites so people have to be careful...But this Jezebel article asks, Is that fair? Is googling someone like stalking them? Or is everything online fair game now and people have to understand that with self-expression comes risks.
However, an important question is, how much of the information on the internet can we trust? Since my numerous stints at internet cafes in India last year, my old, supposedly deactivated hotmail address occasionally sends emails from "me" about great companies everyone should check out. It's spam, and all my friends know it, but I still get annoying emails from people people asking me to stop. Embarrassingly, these emails go out to ALL my contacts, including old employers, professors, and people I've completely lost touch with. Even after closing this account, the spam continues. So I'm guessing that for those who don't know me, they may judge me as 1) An asshole who sends them spam or 2) An asshole who isn't considerate enough to close the account. And there's nothing I can do about it.
I decided to further investigate my "online image" by googling my name. Facebook, old forgotten Friendster, and LinkedIn came up. Then a lot of Suparna Guptas who aren't me came up, and it was a little depressing. I think that I'm definitely the least qualified Suparna Gupta out there in the online world. There's a founder & CEO, Senior Research Scientist, and a Human Rights, Child Protection "Changemaker." Luckily, though...no sex bloggers or porn stars...yet.
As we saw in Boeing Article, social networking made the corporation to respond fast and they do not want to jeopardize their reputation. Social media networks made many corporations and people to be aware of the new communication channels.
ReplyDeleteI read an article few days ago about how employers check potential employees Facebook or other social network before they hire them. CareerBuilder ran a survey of hiring managers and found out that just 22% of them are checking MySpace and Facebook to see if their prospective employees are drinking, doing drugs, trashing former employers, or letting out trade secrets on their profiles. I agree with you there is no reason why her blog should interfere with her work performance. Employers should respect employee’s privacy, and understand that there is a separation of work and personal life.
Although I agree that a personal blog does not reflect one's "on-the job" performance, I think most of us know that we all take risks when engaging in online activity. Due to the numerous security glitches, I am not too sure that true anonymity and/or privacy is possible online. Just take the recent Facebook debacle - many users are now deactivating their Facebook accounts after the network's decision to "share" more information about its users. I disagree with Facebook's actions, but I can't say that I'm surprised. We all need to be very careful with what information we transmit/post online. As stated by Facebook’s vice president for public policy, “Please don’t share if you’re not comfortable.” http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/05/14/looking-to-delete-your-facebook-account-youre-not-alone/
ReplyDeleteThe situation with "The Beautiful Kind" is unfortunate, but again, I am not surprised. Free speech is a right, but we have to make sure we can deal with the consequences. I think the company acted fairly. Many companies have employment policies that support the termination of an employee if his/her actions/behavior violate the company's stated values. I have worked for three different companies over the past 10 years & this message has been made very clear from DAY 1. The digital age has fostered increased communication, yet at the expense of personal interaction. As such, perceptions of you are easily formed by what you publish online - be cautious.
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ReplyDeletePrivacy online IS a huge problem, one that needs to get some serious attention offline. However, the fact is that we choose to put our information out there, we know that it can be easily found or shared. In fact, most users know absolutely nothing about the owners of myspace, facebook or any other social network organization, yet they freely hand over personal information, including full names, phone numbers, or even addresses. So, it's almost ridiculous that those same people also claim it unfair when that information is used against them.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that at some point (hopefully in the near future) governments will intervene and define some forms of regulation for the protection of user privacy on social networks, but until that day comes, people should tread cautiously.