A week or so ago, I was scrolling through my Facebook news feed to see someone I was at university with had posted the following:
I'm always amazed at the stuff that people will consciously and willingly put online.
I say that as someone who's been blogging for nearly a decade and who, back in the day, shared all sorts of anecdotes and misdemeanours that I'd be loathe to put to the world these days.
But, in 2005, the internet was a very different place. There was no Facebook. There was certainly no Twitter. And blogging had the reputation of something being done by spotty geeks in their basements (oh, how Pete Cashmore has changed the image of tech geeks).
Anonymous blogs were enormously popular - because anonymity was so much easier. They were spaces used as confessionals for the stuff you didn't want to admit to your friends. And the other anonymous writers - because that's what they were, writers. There was none of this lifestyle blogger schtick - became confidantes. The guy you'd dated who did that weird thing in bed; that potentially career-ending mistake you made at work - it all got shared and, because employers and family generally weren't savvy enough to be able to find it, it didn't matter.
Now, not so. Twitter and Facebook are used by our parents and our bosses. It's SO EASY for something that strikes a chord, that people find shocking or funny, to spread like the norovirus. Everything online, whether we're anonymous or not, whether we think our settings are private or not, is available to the public. If you've put something online, it's not akin to telling your mates down the pub: it's like taking out an ad in the paper.
Given we live in a society where everyone uses the internet, it's gobsmacking people don't have a better grasp of the digital rules and really, it's so so simple:
1. Don't be a dick.
2. If you wouldn't be prepared to stick your name against it in a national paper, don't put it online.
And don't Commit Electoral Fraud. It's illegal, immoral and stupid.
But, in 2005, the internet was a very different place. There was no Facebook. There was certainly no Twitter. And blogging had the reputation of something being done by spotty geeks in their basements (oh, how Pete Cashmore has changed the image of tech geeks).
Anonymous blogs were enormously popular - because anonymity was so much easier. They were spaces used as confessionals for the stuff you didn't want to admit to your friends. And the other anonymous writers - because that's what they were, writers. There was none of this lifestyle blogger schtick - became confidantes. The guy you'd dated who did that weird thing in bed; that potentially career-ending mistake you made at work - it all got shared and, because employers and family generally weren't savvy enough to be able to find it, it didn't matter.
Now, not so. Twitter and Facebook are used by our parents and our bosses. It's SO EASY for something that strikes a chord, that people find shocking or funny, to spread like the norovirus. Everything online, whether we're anonymous or not, whether we think our settings are private or not, is available to the public. If you've put something online, it's not akin to telling your mates down the pub: it's like taking out an ad in the paper.
Given we live in a society where everyone uses the internet, it's gobsmacking people don't have a better grasp of the digital rules and really, it's so so simple:
1. Don't be a dick.
2. If you wouldn't be prepared to stick your name against it in a national paper, don't put it online.
And don't Commit Electoral Fraud. It's illegal, immoral and stupid.
