What concerns me even more than pictures are words. What if something I said was taken out of context? What if my boss sees it? As a result I have become thinking cautiously about what message I am sending out to the world.
Words that I use could be the beginning and end of my career. Recently I haven't been online much as a result of working from 8:30-5:00 M-F, studying math from 6:00-9:00, vocab flashcards from 9:00-10:00, then email, movie, reading then sleep. On weekends Saturday from 9:00-12:00 is cleaning and catching up on my blogs/readings, 12:00-5:00 is reading and doing vocab homework. Sunday is the only day I completely have free except that I have to go into work this weekend for another project.
Being online so little, work doesn't count, has resulted in me thinking about what I am being left out of. I am not being left out of anything at all. Maybe little things like inside jokes and YouTube videos are being missed out on, but honestly I don't really care anymore. In college I was on the internet all the time for work, school and friendships. Facebook, Vimeo, Netflix were some of the keystones of my excessive free time used other than for studying/work. Now that I am working full time and lack any sort of free time I feel more free than ever.
I miss school terribly and hopefully will be moving away from my parents in August, but I still feel more free than I ever did before. People count on me at my workplace to do well in my projects for the sake of the company. Soon I will have a math tutor who will give me homework and guidance on top of that to do well on a test. I have not felt this free since I walked on the streets of Beijing alone or fooled in the alleys of Bedford with my cousin Maria 15 years ago.
Honestly I have been severely depressed for the past month, because of other things going on in my life that I do not wish to discuss on the internet. Now that I have something to do, in essence achieve, there is more to life than the little things I do on the internet. If I put up a picture of my dog, why shouldn't someone else use it to say how cute she is? I give myself the liberty to do what I want with my online identity.
Maybe to realize that I should stop caring what others do is maturity? Maybe no longer caring about my online footprint is some sort of revelation?
AlJazeera is doing a series on London's West End theaters, which is fabulous and makes want to live in London, for they seem to be doing something extremely creative.
As always, here is a YouTube clip:
I quite like the clip. The stuff you do on the internet is pretty creepy.
ReplyDeleteThe online identity thing is tricky. Because, yeah, crap you put up can come back to bite you in the ass, get you fired or whatever. Whenever I talk about facebook or this blog, my parents wig out a bit saying don't put your address on there! (Come on. I know that.) And you have pictures on the internet?! Don't do that!
The real creepy thing that comes into play here are the privacy issues, especially with facebook. I'm sure we've discussed it, but they can literally do anything with the information posted there. Anything. Like use it to put up ads or sell it to companies or whatever.
Honestly, I've been careful about what goes on my fb for a while. It gets pounded into you after being a business major. But of course I still don't like the idea of people I don't know looking through my photos. And even if I took off every single picture today, they could be copied and posted anywhere else on the internet by now.
Also, your schedule is very demanding. But I'm glad you're happier and busier.
I've thought about that too: what sort of online identity do I want to construct, and how will that identity bite me in the ass later. But honestly, I think as long as you're responsible about it (and take responsbilities for mistakes), then it shouldn't be too bad.
ReplyDeleteSo glad to hear that things are looking up for you! I've been pretty down lately too, but I suppose most post-graduates are right now. THINGS WILL BE BETTER. :D
I should probably clamp down on my facebook identity. I've wanted to change my name for a while. The only reason I haven't done it is because I'd get a million messages saying, "Why did you change your name?"
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking about that more recently because I've been commenting on LGBT links, and I think I should probably be more careful about that. But then again, would I want to work at a place that wasn't LGBT friendly anway? But on the other hand, how many places are really LGBT friendly?
In the end I've kind of come to something akin to Cylon's conclusion. This is who I am. Granted, it's every stupid thing I've ever said or thought documented forever online. In the end, I guess I hope employers realize that there's a difference between who you are in your personal life and in your professional life. I think I deserve a personal life.
Sorry, that was long.
I'm happy that you've been better Cylon. This job sounds great. And I LOVE that clip. It makes me want to go out and start putting little "like" stickers on everything. Just me?