Social Networking 203 - Privacy or lack thereof

Privacy and the internet – a contradiction in terms.  But in social networking, a crucial balance to achieve.

The internet is like walking down the main street in town.  Ninety percent of people you meet are mostly nice, they might be having a bad hair day, lost their dog, whatever, but generally just cruising.  The other ten percent are creeps, criminals or just plain weird – by your own definition ala Seinfeld – there’s nothing wrong with that.

So how much of your true self do you share in the social networking sphere?

 Let’s take a look at some movie stars.  I love reading trashy gossip.  It makes me feel better about my own life (except my body image which is a whole other kettle of fish).  Anyway, if you listen to or read biographies of movie stars, which I tend to because I love finding out about how people got to be where and who they are, you will find a common thread running through the success stories.  They were able to separate their ‘hollywood’ lives from their ‘real’ lives.  How did they do this?

 They created a public persona which they presented just to the public.  They gave scripted responses to interview questions.  They did not include their spouse or children in the foray.  Hollywood was work and when they closed the door that was it.  They presented enough fodder for the papers to print a decent story, posed for photos and called it a day.

 This is what you need to do in the social networking arena.  Create a persona that is part of you but not all of you.  Reserve some opinions, or judgments for your own time.  In essence, create a caricature of yourself that you are happy to be perceived as you, but it is not really you.

 For example, you may comment about the differences between men and women and make an observation about road maps and directions and how males and females react in that situation.  That is a more or less benign comment.  However, what the audience don’t know and shouldn’t know is that the  observation came from a huge fight you had in the car with your partner about a wrong turn you took at the lights and neither of you are speaking to each other.

Personal distance.  The best side of you.  The best parts of you.  The best you have to offer in terms of your expertise, knowledge, entertainment, jokes.  You can create the ‘You’, that you are striving to be as a social networker, just by what you leave out and keep only for yourself and your real friends.

Sometimes this is a difficult balance to achieve but for your own good, you have to.  Don’t be fooled into thinking that everyone on facebook is nice – because they’re not.  You are still existing in the world even though it’s a virtual one.

Sizzle on

Kath