Think about this for a second
One of the things that really mystifies me about the internet is how many people don’t seem to understand what they give up, and can’t get back, when they blog about really personal stuff to a vast audience of anonymous strangers. The internet is not a hippie commune where we’re all in this together, and you know everybody. You can bet for every nice comment on my blog (or yours), there’s a couple people out there who think I’m (or you are) a total nutcase. And aside from the Too Much Information issue, and my personal inability to understand why anyone would be interested in reading about home made sanitary protection (human or canine), it just floors me that so few people ever seem to realize that the internet is the most public of public spaces and what you blog about today, or post on a message board, could haunt you for decades.
Here’s an example of why I really try to maintain privacy on the internet when it comes to my personal life and my family: I just got a new job, a great one, with a fabulous salary, great benefits and perks, and lots of income potential. I also knew that my prospective employer, like most employers these days, would do a background check on me, and how hard would it be for them to Google my name? Not hard at all. And how good is the background checking software that companies use to screen candidates? Very good. The last thing I wanted was for that employer to find anything, anything at all, that could hurt my chance for a job. A few years ago a woman who worked for Harvard University made the mistake of bashing the University on her blog and she was fired for it and the taint of that mistake followed her for years – so my mantra is, just because you can say it on the internet, doesn’t mean you should.
To paraphrase an old carpentry motto: Think twice and post once.
