This week's retro Wednesday post is all about how easy it is to not realize that our social media statements are seen by the public and that we need to be careful of what we write. Check it out below.
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May 20, 2009
The writing on the wall
I remember being in summer stock and sitting out on the porch with one of the other actors. It was a cool crisp night and I had just gotten out of a rehearsal and was drawn in by this particular actor's desire to gossip.
"Did you hear about Matt?" she said. and I of course took the bait. I sat there for a good 30 minutes talking about all the things I had seen and heard about this particular actor and what I approved and disapproved of. On the other side of the porch..... was Matt.
You can imagine how my conversation went that evening. You see, Matt was my roommate. The rest of the summer was NOT very pleasant.
In the world wide web we have our own huge porch with thousands of people sitting on the other side.
It's called the FACEBOOK wall.
As many of you probably realize, every time you post something on a wall, it gets fed to all of your friends (unless you've adjusted privacy settings)
There are even stories of people losing their jobs over what was posted on the profile or on the wall.
I had something on my wall that I had to delete. Mainly because the person who wrote it did not have all of the information, made a bunch of assumptions, and made me look bad. Out of respect for his privacy, I won't post it here, nor say who it was.
After this experience though, I was reminded of my experience with Matt because the same lesson applies. In my case, I had no answer to Matt's challenge of, "why don't you say these things to my face?"
I was dumbstruck. I then made a promise to myself to make sure that I would take responsibility for whatever I put out there.
With the ubiquitous quality of things like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, etc. your message WILL get out there. You need to make sure it's one that you're willing to own up to.
This blog is also another place where that applies. I certainly have to answer to my readers in the comment section and my message can certainly spread rather quickly. So don't forget to curate your content and remember that you may not be the only one seeing what you write.
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