Friday, March 25, 2011

Connections everywhere!

It's an amazing time in technology. Not only can you connect to other people on such social media as FaceBook, Twitter, and MySpace, but you can link most any social media connection to any other. It's like being part of a huge extended family. Suddenly, you can let everyone know about changes in your life, successes in your business, and dreams for the future. You can ask for advice, offer opinions, and comment on current events. You can post, tweet, blog, like, share, and link. You can find people you went to elementary school with and comment on the actions of today's "stars". You can re-connect with long-lost friends, locate an old chum, and research a company with whom you are considering doing business. It truly is a whole-earth approach to socializing.

Now, the bad side: you are accessible to virtually everyone in the virtual world. You cannot hide. Every post is out there for the world to see, every comment, every "like", every connection is exposed. Caution should be the watchword of the day. You can post what seems to you an innocent comment on FaceBook and potentially lose a job. You can link to someone who is only interested in stealing your identity and sucking all the funds out of your bank account. And the worst part is that anything you put out there is out there for all time. There are very few opportunities for "do-overs".

Remember, my friends. Be careful "out there". People are watching.

2 comments:

Flora Loveday said...

I totally agree, as an author, it is hard to hide behind the iron curtain in the blogosphere world, but it can be done. Just have to be aware of what we say, or better yet, write under a pen name!!

Great points you make.

Unknown said...

Thanks for the comment. Writing under a pen name is a good idea, but it's not one I've gotten real comfortable with yet. I'd prefer to use my real name and be careful in other areas.
Do you write under a pen name, and if so, what have you written and published?
Joe Rinaldo
rinald47@gmail.com