Blogger blindness

Perhaps it started with David Brooks' column last month explaining the concept of MySpace and Facebook to the middle-aged exurbanites who he supposedly speaks for. Now, everybody is worried about exhibitionist teens attracting the attention of unsavory charachters (and parents) via blogs and online profiles.

The Washington Post jumps on the Bandwagon of Deep Concern with an article about kids in DC suburbs posting up too much personal information and then acting shocked-SHOCKED when someone in a position of authority finds out.

Ironically, many teenagers are outraged or embarrassed when parents or other adults go to their sites. "I think they see it as a violation of their personal space," said Madeira's Cole. "They feel as if their diaries are being read."

There was a time when you cut post more or less whatever you'd like on Friendster, MySpace or a blog and still sleep well at night, safe in the knowledge that the only people who would see the pictures of your drunken escapades are the sort of people you'd go out drinking with.

Those days are over now.

As I learned when I started my first job out of college, all of your new co-workers Google you when you start a new job. It took about an hour between the time when my boss send an email notifying the company of a new hire and when I noticed a traffic spike on my old politics blog, on which I posted my name. By the end of the week, I took it down and started to look into starting a new site that didn't have my name on it. Why did I think that nobody would find out? Perhaps because I had never talked about blogs with people who did not have a blog themselves. My name was on the page and the page was accessable to anyone with Google, so my misinformed understanding of who could and would visit it was really inexplicable.

For me, the consequences were minimal since the content was strident, but not particularly embarassing. However, given the sort of material you see on MySpace, there are now probably hundereds of thousands of people who willingly post embarassing pictures and information about themselves within full view of people who are willing to set up a free account. Now that the cat is out of the bag with regards to these interpersonal networking sites, high schoolers and adults alike need to be more vigilant with what they allow other site users to see. Given the prevalence of drug testing and background checking, what vigilant employer (law firms especially) wouldn't want to know about your weekend activities or political leanings?

The bottom line: Our little Internet party was fun while it lasted, but someone forwarded the invitation to the boss, so we're all going to have to behave for the remainder of the evening.