In terms of giving away personal information online, that’s a very good question. Here on social networking sites, sharing is pretty much a given. But every piece of info you give away can be used against you!
This has many implications. For example: you’re interviewing for a job. Before said interview, your prospective employer does a Google search on your name (or even your initials!). And finds a picture of you doing a keg stand at a frat party. “Well,” would-be boss says. “This guy/gal’s no good. How irresponsible.”
Whoops. Also, goodbye job. Keeping your online image clean is important, but anything you said can and will be used against you in the court of opinion. Say you have no keg-stand pictures, but post on Twitter. A lot. Like, to the point where you’re tweeting “Walkin’!” when you get up to cross the room. Someone might look at this and think you don’t get anything done because you’re online all the time.
It’s a tricky situation. What bothers one person may not bother another. In the above situation, fellow twitterer may go “Welcome aboard! What ideas do you have about bringing our company onto Twitter?”
I’m not saying you should stop—far from it! Just remember being online is like living in the same mid-sized town as any prospective employer. And there are two truths of towns like that: 1: Gossip is forever; 2: Not everyone knows everyone else, but they do know someone who knows you.
This is the world wide web we live in. Frustrating as it might be at times, I still love it.
