Yesterday we had a discussion on the issues of blogging, such as MySpace and the conflict that can occur with your employer. I agree that you can find some pretty KrAzY things that people will post about themselves when it comes to MySpace, and I can see how an employer would not want their organization associated with unprofessional behavior, or even not wanting to be associated with someone who is professional but has friends who are very unprofessional. It's even tougher working in the education field, I realized this when reading my classmates blog postings about the warnings administration gives faculty and staff on their web use habits. Children who have a lot of time on their hands, would love to play with the copy and paste tool on your photos and create some strange images that could be detrimental to your career, but only fun and games to them.
I do not have any of my images or personal information listed to be seen by people who are not a personal friend or safe acquaintance. I'm really debating if I want to keep the information that I've had up about myself currently, or take it down all together. I enjoy being able to keep in touch with old friends, but sometimes people you were only to have met for a season where not suppose to be an acquaintance for life. That is really what pages like MySpace and Facebook allow. Think about this...do you really want to be associated with people you hung out with as an unruly adolescent, when you are a professional in your 30's? What if those acquaintances are still unruly? They're your friends that you wouldn't mind grabbing lunch or having a drink with at sometime in your later life, but would you want to be associated with their unruly behavior online when you are professional? It should be a good rule of thumb, only post information about yourself online that you don't mind the world seeing and knowing. Because nothing is totally confidential when it comes to the use of technology, even with the right settings on your account manager!