In a world over run with electronic communication we must always be aware of the paper trail we leave behind us. With websites like MySpace and Facebook taking over the internet, more and more people are divulging their private lives online. I think it is very important for people who are members of these sites to think twice about every word they type and every picture they post.
Fortunately, I have been very careful about everything I do online to avoid being embarrassed by something I should not have posted online, however I have made the mistake of viewing things other people have posted on their networking sites and misinterpreted them to a negative light. For example, I once got into a two month fight with a friend because she had posted a picture of her and I and put a caption that was not flattering to say the least. On this situation I may not have exactly misinterpreted anything, but I definitely overreacted and was too sensitive about a joke one of my good friends had made. It’s possible that the fact that this picture with the vulgar caption underneath was open for all to see bothered me more than the words my friend typed.
One experience that my older sister had was a negative experience for her, but turned out to be a good lesson and affected me positively. My sister is twenty eight, pretty, and a softball coach at a University. She is still young enough to be involved in these networking sites which are pretty much public, while they can be set to private, there is always some sort of loophole. My sister had posted a picture of her with my family, on a cruise, sitting at a table with a glass of wine. The picture was not distasteful or offensive and did not even show her drinking the wine. The University my sister teaches at is very academic and very expensive to attend, the students, parents, and faculty is very serious about their education. About five days later after posting this picture, my sister was called into the Athletic Director’s office. The school had set up a program that could monitor any public web pages their faculty used, including my sisters. She was told the picture needed to be removed immediately because it “showed the use of alcohol by a member of the staff at this pretentious University”. She was shocked at how strict this seemed, but also realized as a softball coach these girls look up to her and she needs to be extra cautious at how she represents herself. This was a good lesson for her and me to remind us that there is always someone watching and you make your life public with everything you put on a networking site.
MySpace and Facebook are great tools to connect people all over the world and give people a place to speak their minds, share their opinions and stories, and let others know about who they are. However the world can be dangerous and judgmental and so can other people. So a good rule of them is to always allow yourself time to think over what you are going to put on a public website so that you can be assured it will never come back to bite you in the you know what.
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It is very interesting that you mentioned how people can misinterpret things that are posted online, such as the picture your friend posted. Sometimes people do misinterpret the truth, and too often for the worse. It was also interesting that even what your peers post online can have some pretty negative effects toward you as well. I know I would be pretty upset if a friend posted a picture or wrote something personal about me online that I did not want to share with the public. The story about your sister was another great example about how technology can affect us. I know that your sister had to work very hard to achieve her job as a soccer coach at the university and she probably takes much pride in it. To even be able to get to this position, she must have a great character and never thought posting that picture of her would do any harm. Nowadays the internet and technology, as wonderful as it is, is often just yet another hassle in our lives.
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