DISQUS

ontarioemperor · 1 year ago

Probably the biggest brake to my complete online sharing isn't what my posts would reveal about me, but what they would reveal about others close to me. I need to constantly keep in mind that while I have opted to share various things online, my family has not similarly opted to share numerous details about themselves. Therefore, there are things about them that I choose not to share.

jhofker · 1 year ago

Dead on, Ontario. I do the same thing. If you try hard enough, you can probably find out just about anything about me. My family? Not as much, so I try to keep it that way for them.

Michael Martine · 1 year ago

Great examination of the issues. To really answer your last question, the answer is NOTHING. Remarkablogger focuses quite heavily on business bloggers (people who have a business and blog to market it--not people who blog about business). So the professional image thing is important in that case. And even then, crafting the image you want to present takes a lot of work and a lot of restraint.

Thinking through the consequences of our actions is important. You never know what's going to happen with that picture of your daughter you just posted online and didn't keep private. People confuse privacy with transparency.

BlueCockatoo · 1 year ago

Great post. I've struggled with these issues for years. Besides being part of the generation you mentioned where privacy is still a big deal, I also have a parent that asks me frequently if I'm sure I should be sharing as much as I do on the internet. The fact that someone I didn't know would know the names of my immediate family and the city we live in, some of the places we frequent and more by paying attention to things here and there and piecing together info from different services is a little scary.

But I enjoy being able to interact with people too much to give it all up. I wish there were a way to create an easily maintained alias for each "branch" of my life and have things only exposed to the people I wanted them to. But, alas, that's something that may never happen. So, I think "Just Don't Care" is probably the best policy, at least, paradoxically, within certain boundaries. ;)

Rahsheen · 1 year ago

I just don't care. I grew up on the internet (started off on BBS's). I have always had more friends online than in RL, so I guess that makes me a special case. Since I work for myself, I don't have to worry about upsetting an employer.

I do tend to keep those close to me out of what I share unless I warn them first :)

Shey · 1 year ago

I think future employment is definitely an issue (that luckily you don't have to deal with). I would bet most HR depts are Googling and Facebooking potential employees. I try to be careful of what I say and how I say it.

jeneane · 1 year ago

i used to tell all, and I still try not to hold back the 'who i am' in who i am. Is it smart to post "I'M IN MENOPAUSE: HIRE ME!" and proceed to talk about how screwed up my brain is currently? Not the most common strategy, but it works for me. i am interviewing my clients by sharing who I am. i am saying: I am a proven commodity - this is who I am. Now, WHO are YOU?

That having been said, in 2001 this was the place we came to be away from THAT place (TheRealWorld), and many of us shared everything, WITH the gory details. We didn't need video -- pixels worked quite nicely.

Some of us got fired, yes. Some of us got divorced. Some of us suicided. And that's no joke. I

t was different then - not only did I share pictures of my daughter, but when she was 4 going on 5, our blog family delivered a birthday for her - a dozen amazon.com boxes of toys from bloggers around the world. She'll be 11 soon. I'm more hesitant to share pieces of her in a place that has gone from being a community to being an economy.

Less than a year ago, my blogfolk bought me the macbook I'm writing this comment on, not because I write really well and my acer died, but because they care about me--they care that I stay here. And they care because I have shown them who I am.

I'm glad I'm not starting out in "social media" today--glad I experienced the days when getting personal was the reason to be here, not an option to be explored.

fogofeternity · 1 year ago

I don't think that our online world is a reflection of the real world. We're focused far more on acquaintances and contacts as opposed to good friends and close relationships. Those closer relationships we continue to deal with via contact in person, on telephone, or through email. I don't believe that social networking is how we interact regularly with our close friends, and neither is it a method by which we develop new friends.

It is a way in which we network ourselves though. And we network a different persona than we do when making friends. Sure we'll reveal some of ourselves, but ultimately networking is about creating relationships of function rather than of pleasure. And I think that's what people often fail to realise. Labels of "friends" on blogs, rss, social networking are misleading. We're talking contacts.

Shey · 1 year ago

The urge to conform.

There's a lot of division in webspace and some are very strongly opinionated on the issues: PC vs Mac, Liberal vs Conservative, Atheist vs Christian and many others.

I would say most don't want to get caught up in these issues so they keep private for fear of isolating themselves.

Virginia · 1 year ago

Speaking as someone who frequently writes about bloggers in articles that quote things the blogger said--I've quoted this blog a few times--when I find an anonymous blog I don't even read it because I have no interest in anonymous writers.

Barbara Ling · 1 year ago

I try to go by the mantra, always make certain that what I publish is something I wouldn't mind my kids or my mom to find online...10 years from now.

Seems to work so far....

Barbara

Jarred Taylor · 1 year ago

Sarah, did you read the piece in the NYT Magazine this weekend by Emily Gould, formerly of Gawker? Sobering account of overexposure on the web and its repercussions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/magazine/25in...

tommyduncn · 1 year ago

Gen Y: really "keeping it real."

Julie (calinazaret) · 1 year ago

You have a really interesting point. I think being open about yourself makes the experience more interesting online. When I interact with people who have th default avatar and give no information at all, I feel like I might as well be talking to a bot.

Vince DeGeorge · 1 year ago

I try to be careful, but I plan to remain true to myself. This works out well because I believe myself to be a good and honest person. It's easy to find me an my opinion and I think my "branding" is pretty good. Most of the things I say on the Internet you can hear me say in real life.

I talk politics, but I believe in an election year, it's appropriate to do so. I do shy away from religion because I think it's a very personal subject.

If my opinions keep me from receiving a job at a company, we probably wouldn't be a good fit for each other in the end. Who I am on the 'net is who I am in real life.

hp · 1 year ago

Try making friends online. I like using Human Pets!! It's so fun. Try it http://humanpets.com

Perry · 1 year ago

I have found an interesting "collision' between my online friends and "real life" friends in the last couple of years, mostly due to social networking sites. It was odd at first, and I do now find myself filtering what I do or say online far more than I used to. To a slightly lesser extent, I've also seen a collision between work friends and outside-of-work friends.

Pamela Egan · 1 year ago

I admit I do like the fact that I can selectively pick-and-choose what information I share and what I choose to keep confidential. Not every single detail is relevant or interesting, and I appreciate that I can edit out the stuff no one wants to see.