My mother-in-law recently wrote an interesting post on expressing her views on her blog. The advice from her readers varied, I agreed with the advice from an Honest Man of ‘As I get older I tend to the philosophy that venting one’s anger/frustration/…. is only worthwhile when it achieves something (other than the self-indulgent letting off of steam)’
My belief is that you should never put something on the internet that you would not want your mother to see or say something that you would not say to someone’s face. Otherwise a blog can be used as a cowardly tool to express views that you don’t have the guts to say to someone’s face. This can be damaging to the subject of a blog and the blogger is often remote from the hurt/damage they have caused.
What about sharing more personal information? My brother-in-law has used his blog to talk about digital natives and he looks at the way people use the internet in the workplace. I have some sympathy with Jaye’s comments as I don’t believe using a pc in the workplace makes you a digital native but how you use the internet in your personal life is much more important. Therefore, a problem from my favourite agony aunt has prompted this post.
Quick summary of the problem – A firm has decided to recruit a junior member of staff online and the firm has rejected a candidate as during an internet search it is revealed that she likes to be ‘on top with my bondage gear and whip’. The boss is asking whether a candidate should be rejected for this reason. What do you think?
This is where I know that I fail to be a digital native – this fails my basic test of ‘would I want this information to be common knowledge?’ As the answer for me is a resounding no, I would not put this on the internet. Would I refuse to interview this candidate? It depends – for a junior post then probably yes. While, in my opinion, it does reflect poor judgment – my opinion is driven by the fact I am not a digital native. This leaves me asking myself, should I (and people like me) be more tolerant of internet exhibitionists or should the ‘youngsters’ who put inappropriate details in on the internet be aware of this risk they are running when they do so?