Full Disclosure

Reading about social media, the warnings are there.  Privacy died with your first posting on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.

To be frank, the fact that my status update from today will be dissected 20 years from now does not keep me from participating.  Should I?

Now more than ever, our value in social media is dependent on our contribution and the ability to connect.  Privacy has become an outdated notion.

Where attention is coveted, privacy is a luxury no one can afford.  We have a choice, participate or become invisible and have no part in the discussion.

If faced with this choice, many of us will choose full disclosure.  I have.  It can be a little overwhelming to imagine that twenty and thirty years from now, individuals will be able to find the drunken pictures and puzzling affiliations of our youth.  But I take comfort in the fact that not only do I have an embarassing past but so will everyone else.

2010
01/13
CATEGORY
confidence
social media
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Obstacles can be imaginary

Social media blossomed while I wasn’t looking.  My sister informed me of MySpace after everyone had it and I learned about Twitter a year ago.  The more I read about social media, the more I wanted to be a part of it.  I had started multiple blogs but without any real reason to have a blog, they kept my attention for weeks and eventually they were all deleted.

My first obstacles were technical.  I had an outdated phone which did not support email or a web browser and how could I participate in social media without those?

My second were time constraints.  I was working crazy hours and could not possibly find the energy after a demanding boss, 9 hour work days, and 2 hour commutes to find time to truly participate.

And then I left my job and had all the time in the world to submerge myself.  And I did.  And after removing all the obstacles from my path, I realized those were not obstacles at all.  The real issue I had was my social skills.  Bad social skills with people face to face did not disappear just because you are trying to engage over the web.  The obstacles that kept me from being able to really engage in social media were not real.  And eventually when the obstacles ran out, I had to face the facts.

Maybe there are very few obstacles in the real world that can stop us.  Most of them are within ourselves.

2010
01/08
CATEGORY
confidence
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