You know when you’re in elementary school and they hand out meaningless awards on a piece of paper with random clip art scattered across it? I remember getting one in fourth grade with the arching text “Computer Whiz” sprawled across the top. I didn’t stand a chance. I was type-cast among my peers early on. It’s never really bothered me though. I take a kind of pride in what I can do with technology. It’s only ever annoying when you’re hounded constantly for computer advice or free repair help.
I come from a family of geeks. There is no other word for the members of my immediate and even distant relation. And this is probably no surprise to anyone that’s met them. Or me.
Some of them are tech geeks like me. Others are crafting nerds that genuinely enjoy sitting around a table and throwing cheap beads on a piece of string. Some are nature freaks that can tell you a hundred different facts about a hundred different woodland critters in a region or what each flower is, when it will bloom, and whether or not cold weather has already destroyed a good sight seeing road trip on some gravel road in some remote part of Iowa. Yes, there are Iowans that actively seek out even more remote parts of Iowa.
And many members of my family cross into multiple varieties of geeky-ness.
My family is a very connected family. It always has been. I remember my grandma staring down at the kitchen table where she was sitting and writing letters on what seemed like a daily basis. So many letters. Open communication is something we’ve always been about. Keeping in contact with those we’ve met. Ensuring ties don’t dwindle. Constant check up calls to family in bordering states. Many letters to and from other family many states away. One of the things I most appreciate is how close we are, regardless of the miles between us.
I’m afraid that this may have skewed my perspective on the latest social media buzz in relation to Facebook and their privacy policies, but I honestly think that the media covering the issues are blowing it way out of proportion.
Look, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; nothing you do online is ever safe. Nothing. No matter how many privacy policies you read through, no matter how well you know the terms of the sites you use. Any information you put out there, whether in text, images, video, or audio is like water. If there’s a leak to be found, it’s going to drain out.
If there are things you don’t want someone to see then you had better not put it out there.
I’m a very open person. I actively put out information about myself and what I’m doing or interested in. All the time. Daily. Not everyone’s like that. Some people probably think that’s crazy. I disagree.
I wouldn’t encourage anyone else to do it if they didn’t want to and didn’t know what to be selective about, but I guarantee some of the people that read this and do think it’s crazy have a lot more information about themselves out there than they realize.
You need to be intelligent about how you conduct yourself online. You need to educate yourself on what kinds of information people are looking for to take advantage of you.
Do you need to be worried that you’re some faceless number to some company that knows your favorite band is Matchbox 20? Probably not. That information is being sold for advertising purposes and isn’t likely to be used to target you specifically or maliciously.
You need to be conservative in placing birth dates online at whim.You need to be cautious about providing a full name (first, middle, and last) to just anyone. You need to be careful about what kind of financial information you store on a computer or use on different websites. You need to be aware that a social security number is the most precious piece of information you have and should never be shared.
Does anyone care about the picture of you on Facebook bent over a toilet? Does anyone care about the picture from last year’s Halloween party where you dressed in drag? Probably not. I’d argue that even future employers are unlikely to care.
There’s this notion that these kind of images could have an impact five, ten or even fifteen years down the road should you ever be looking for a new job. The problem with this idea is that if it were to hold true and businesses/organizations were to ever waste their time filtering out every idiotic perspective employee then they would have no one to hire.
Welcome to the digital age. Your drunken night is no more meaningful than the other 400 million active Facebook users. The times, they are a-changin’.