
In business and in life, we leave what’s called a paper trail. On the internet, it’s called often referred to as an electronic paper trail.
Most transaction we make, can be followed. Our bank statement shows how much money we have, and where we spent it. Credit/debit card records are similar. Our medical records are tracked. The IRS (Internal Revenue Service) has records of our earnings and taxes we paid, as does our State government. Electronic copies of all these records are often archived on hard drives, portable media storage, in vaults or secure rooms, and with the proper authorization, they can be viewed.
Credit bureaus have our financial information. With it, they assign a “credit score”.
Companies do a “security clearance” for some types of jobs. Whether they access this information or not, is unknown, however with our social security number, birth date and drivers license number, the electronic information that can be revealed is unlimited.
Although most of this is private information, the amount of public information produced by individuals can also be detrimental.
Blogs are a good example of public information. Blogs are published works of “art”, per se.
Today’s Lesson
A post on The Blog Herald inspired this topic. Written by Andrew G.R, and titled: Blogger Beware: Big Brother Is (Always) Watching,., he says:
More than 40% of large companies read employee e-mails and are hunting for you on the major social networks.
So we have to ask, who is reading our blogs, and who will be reading them in the future?
By “in the future”, I mean 10, 20 or 30 years from now.
Currently our employer could be reading our blog.
Future employers may also read our writings.
You may say, “I’m self employed and I am my own boss”.
But what happens if our current business can’t sustain itself in a flailing economy. What if we’re forced to work for “the man” again. Or what about our spouse. If they work, an employer could easily “Google” the family name and find our blog.
Have we written anything that could be detrimental to our spouse’s employment? Or, our children’s?
O.K., so you say, “Well I can delete my blog”.
Yes you can. But, what about others (our loyal readers) who have quoted us, or the person who plagiarized our work (but left our name intact). We can’t delete their blogs. We could email them and beg to have the articles deleted, but their blog may be in dormancy and their contact information could be invalid. Or is the original post(s) cached/saved in some internet “vault”? Maybe.
And….what did we write in the comment section of other blogs? Could that hurt us?
Then there’s the issue of emails and social networks. Are we projecting a different persona? Are we being more verbal? Exposing a side of ourself that our blog doesn’t project? Are we revealing trade “secrets”?
What if the day comes we (or our spouse) decide to enter into politics? Or our company goes global? Who will dig up our electronic paper trail?
It happens, and it gets people in trouble.
Today’s Assignment
Google yourself
Google you spouse’s name
Do you like what you find?
Could it hurt you a year from now? 10 or 20 years from now? How about 40?
Would you make your grandchildren proud?
How about your “public”?
Do you care?
Photo Credit:
tyger_lyllie’s photostream
Have you ever visited a blog, read the post and all of the comments, but didn’t feel comfortable commenting?
I have.
Blogs can be that way.
The author publishes their post for the whole world to see, and often others leave comments. A conversation develops between the author and their audience.
Today’s Lesson
When I started blogging, most of my time was spent learning what blogging was all about. I would visit other blogs, grab an idea or two, and come back and work on my blog. I often read the comments as they usually added value to the post.
I noticed on some blogs, the comments seemed quite personal. I assumed these people knew each other (in real life). Since I wasn’t part of “the group”, I didn’t feel right interrupting their conversation by leaving my “two cents”, so I would quickly click off and move on.
As I learned more about blogging and commenting, I soon realized how communities form in blogosphere. Bloggers have favorite blogs they visit, and will comment on a regular basis. They are showing their support for the author. In most instances they’ve never met, nor will they ever.
Blog authors are thrilled to see a new visitor on their blog. Comments are the obvious way of knowing.
When I look at the stats for my blog(s), I realize I have many more readers than I do commenters.
If you’re reading this, and not commenting, I say “thank you” for reading my writings. It’s fine if you don’t want to comment, don’t have the time to comment, or prefer to remain as reader.
Like you, I too, have blogs I visit that I don’t always comment on.
Today’s Assignment
What inspires you to leave a comment?
Do you ever read blogs and not comment?
Have you ever visited a blog and didn’t feel comfortable commenting? Why?
Photo Credit: net_efekt’s photostream