TECHNOLOGY TIPS - TO FRIEND OR TO UNFRIEND, FACEBOOK FOIBLES
I have a lot of information in the social media sphere, and I'm highly controlled in what I will share. Even when I first started using Facebook, Twitter and the like, I had business associates tell me that they would "un-friend" me if I put out anything inappropriate.
Last week I had to un-friend a young family member (we'll call it maturity). Of course over Mother's Day dinner, my mom told me not to worry that she would keep her posts clean, but it brought up an interesting and salient point. When you are in the social media sphere, there are levels of transparency that are acceptable and levels that are private.
I just read an article, The Tell-All Generation Learns When Not To, at Least Online. The fascinating thing is that the demographic of the group who is becoming more diligent about monitoring details in social media are aged 18 to 29, which is our next generation of business and enterprise leaders.
According to one of the people interviewed, "Sam Jackson, a junior at Yale who started a blog when he was 15 and who has been an intern at Google, said he had learned not to trust any social network to keep his information private. 'If I go back and look, there are things four years ago I would not say today,' he said."
Remember, just because you want to share, you don't necessarily have to do it in writing. Even with the levels of privacy available to users, there is usually a back door to find what has been written.
CATHY MALLERS & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
