After some reflection I realise why I had such a problem with that picture of my birthday party being posted on face book. Well, firstly when I took the photo it was in the context of the private comfort of my own home and the fact that at the time I was posing for this photo I had no thought of it being put in to a public context; not of my choice and without my consent! It felt like my right to decide what aspect of my life I share was taken out of my hands, which raises an issue of Image Management.
From the beginning of my decision to become a ‘book face’ as I call it, I was very aware of and tried to avoid the usual misdemeanours of users of face book. How? I was very careful about whom I added as a friend for one. Even people I’d say I know reasonably well had to be scanned. By scanned I mean before I added someone as a friend I’d look and read through their profile and if I saw something i.e. pictures, comments that would be offence to me or someone I knew i.e. swearing, half naked pictures etc I would not add that person. This may mean me being given the title of 'prude' amongst my peers but as I currently work with young people and knowing that I am a person of influence, I’ll gladly take the title. I didn’t just check the profiles of the people I knew but who they knew because I find truth in ‘Show me your company, I’ll show you who you are’. So for me to take precautions and still get stung is in a word, annoying!
Social networking sites and the web in general are feeding the notion of ‘You can be whatever you want to portray yourself as', which is something I found fault in. This is a large part of the appeal and success of many web-based technologies and is an aspect that I believe a large number of people are taking advantage of and was a point that came up in the ‘Does Web Technologies enhance Professional Practice?’ session. In the session, good Self Management was a solution in the conclusions of all the groups as the most important way to safe guard ourselves against ideas theft and other cons of web based technologies. Laura Jane Weir shared some advice from her agent who suggested she have two accounts one personal and professional, which was good advice which at the time I didn’t really consider but now appreciate. The general consensus of the group was that self management was a key point in the usage of these technologies. Personally, I’ll even go as far as using an alias.
Is anyone else safe guarding themselves?
Please let me know what you are doing to safe guard your ideas and information and if you’ve discovered any pitfalls to avoid.
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