Clearly I need to know more about privacy settings on Facebook. When I read Making Sense of Privacy and Publicity by Danah Boyd, I got a tingly sensation up the back of my neck. I wondered if I was one of those people who misunderstood Facebook’ privacy changes. I’m already a bit paranoid about my personal information, thoughts, and whereabouts being posted to friends but now I’m even more concerned.
On the other hand, those confusing privacy settings have worked for my advantage. A few years ago I tracked down two business associates who owed me money and was able to reconnect with them from information they posted. I also investigated a person who hit me in bad car accident last year. She uses Facebook daily and was posting to her page at the scene while I was being loaded into an ambulance!
I must admit I enjoyed playing detective and secretly tip toeing through this woman’s world. She hadn't posted anything incriminating and her photo albums did not show her as a heavy drinker. Knowing this information made me feel better.
Why are pictures of drunk or naked people funny? I don’t know but sometimes they are. At least Paris Hilton kept her friend's anonymity.
I remember a news story of a person who, on the way home from her interview, tweeted that Cisco had just offered her a job. Instead of sharing her excitement and gratitude for the great opportunity she tweeted she would have to consider the “fatty paycheck” against the commute and work she hated.
Apparently the Human Resources Department was following her and before she made it home, the job offer was rescinded. In addition to losing her job opportunity she also had to deal with the embarrassment of backlash because her story was all over the news and social media.
This is not an unusual story just one of many that makes me think twice before posting something I think is witty or funny.
Karen - the story you told at the end of your blog about the girl who lost her job opportunity because of a tacky twitter post took me back to the reading we did during the first part of the class about the girl who got a job offer off of twitter. It just shows the negative side and positive side of posting things on social media sites.
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