One of the problem areas of online interactivity is that some people are downright rude, and blogs have a reputation for hosting some pretty confronting conversation. An education focused site like myedna is unlikely to be seriously bothered by this problem, but there was an interesting spin on the issue in a column in the New York Times last week.
The noted columnist Tom Friedman [The World is Flat] wrote about the open nature of current society, where bloggers and others can publish what they like, instantly. And digital material is very hard to erase. So a foolish comment made ten years ago might come back to haunt you.
“The implications of all this are the subject of a new book by Dov Seidman, founder and C.E.O. of LRN, a business ethics company. His book is simply called “How.” Because Seidman’s simple thesis is that in this transparent world “how” you live your life and “how” you conduct your business matters more than ever, because so many people can now see into what you do and tell so many other people about it on their own without any editor. To win now, he argues, you have to turn these new conditions to your advantage.”
“The persistence of memory in electronic form makes second chances harder to come by,” writes Seidman. “In the information age, life has no chapters or closets; you can leave nothing behind, and you have nowhere to hide your skeletons. Your past is your present.” So the only way to get ahead in life will be by getting your “hows” right.”
Friedman went on say that employers now routinely do a google search on applicants for positions to see what presence the person has on the web. Their MySpace persona might not accord with what their resume says!
So the upshot of this transparency may well be that we have a strong incentive to guard our reputation online, and to put your best foot forward, conscious that one’s online audience might be much wider than we imagine. That is a refreshingly positive view and a realistic one too, I think.
We generally behave very well in public places, like the cinema, or in a shop, not just because we are all nice people, but because we have learned that there are sanctions for bad behaviour in public. It looks as though we are developing an awareness of sanctions against bad behaviour online too.
2 Comments
I think managing your reputation means different things to different people. Perhaps as members of the workforce many people would tend to be concerned about their online presence and would make efforts to guard it. Others would be blissfully unaware. However, it seems to be quite well documented that those who have or are growing up in a digital age may have quite different views on privacy and reputation. Personal webspaces are great tools for sharing photos, thoughts, activities etc. For example, in college it’s not inconceivable that you may quite happily post a picture of yourself (mis)behaviing at a pub - having a great time last Saturday night. For the present, your reputation may actually be enhanced among some peers. Down the track this could be quite embarrassing perhaps as your values or attitudes may change over time.
I can imagine that it would be difficult to convince those who are growing up how to not just enhance or protect their current reputation, but their future one too. Perhaps we need to be allowed to grow up in a digital sense just as much as in the real world.
It is a difficult thing though (managing your online reputation). In real discussions, sometimes we push a particular point of view, not necessarily because we believe in it, but simply to be able to examine it and other alternatives (eg playing devil’s advocate). In a class/meeting room, our colleagues usually easily recognise this but in a blog or forum, with less communication channels open to us, this becomes very easy to mis-interpret and, as you say, its quite possible our online reputation can be significantly altered. I think this whole area is a great area for further discussion.
Cheers.
Very interesting points Jerry. We certainly don’t want all of our adolescent thoughts to stay bolted on to our reputation for ever, and I assume we won’t be prudishly apply current standards to every extravagant comment offered 20 years ago. I would not like my dinner party opinions of 30 years ago to be thrown back to me today. However what we put on the internet today may well be with us in 20 years or more. Makes you think.
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