Living in the digital fish bowl

I have a serious problem with social media these days. My problem is with other people and their lack of consideration on how their actions impact other people. I have a problem with someone choosing to post images of another person without said person’s permission. Just because the person posting the image thinks it’s harmless, doesn’t mean it is. I know lots of folks who live alternative lifestyles and live it out loud to anyone and everyone, but some of us don’t want to live in that kind of a spotlight.
Some people choose to live their lives with discretion and keep boundaries between their social, personal, and professional lives.

You hear stories about it more and more every day. Someone gets fired over it, or it causes a divorce, used in lawsuits etc… Photos posted on social media sites are not harmless or private, despite what other people claim. How many times have you heard someone say: “But my site is protected, or it’s private.” I have news for you. It isn’t. Once you put it on the internet, it’s no longer private and it can have repercussions no matter how many times you want to cite the first amendment.

Sadly it’s getting to the point where the average person can’t go out in public without ending up having their image and subsequently their personal lives splashed all over the internet. This is when advocates of the first amendment will chime in and scream censorship and how you have no reasonable expectation of privacy while out in public.

Yes you’re right. When I am walking down the street, I have a reasonable expectation that I will be seen. I have a reasonable expectation that while I’m out playing at a park with my kid I will be observed, but I also have a reasonable expectation that the embarrassing thing that just happened will only be momentary and forgotten soon, instead of posted on the internet forever for ridicule and scorn. I should be able to have a reasonable expectation when I am at a private party that I’ve paid to attend, to not have my image used to promote the venue, market the venue, or really just get posted on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, or Flickr. Why, because that is my personal life.

I don’t go into the office and talk about the crazy shenanigans I had over the weekend or bitch about my personal drama to my coworkers. That’s my professional life. I don’t tell my clients who I’m dating or share photos of my girls’ weekend in Vegas. I keep things professional. Professional People! Learn this. When you are at work, no one cares about your after work extracurriculars. You are expected to do your job and act in a way that positively represents the company while you are there.

(The fact that employers are using social media to investigate their employees is a different matter entirely and has its own ethical murkiness.)

The truth is social media changes things. The lines between personal and professional are not as easy to keep clean and they do bleed into each other. The truth is it also has negative impacts. When people were posting on the internet anonymously it was fine, but that is almost impossible to maintain these days. There are always tech savvy people who can and will hack their way into finding out the identity of the anonymous account. (This is closer to actual journalism than paparazzi snapping photos of celebs.)

People have forgotten that those boundaries were in place for a reason. They erroneously think that if it’s not on company time then it’s personal and therefore private, but in this day and age since an employee’s actions can negatively impact the image of a company, what you do online is no longer considered purely personal and it sure isn’t private when you are posting for every stranger around the world to see.

So stop posting images that aren’t of you, or that you don’t have the individual’s permission to post. Stop posting other people’s embarrassing moments, and for the sake of your future employment desires stop posting your own bad behavior for the whole world to see.