How Are You Viewed Online?
If you are like 99% of teens and adults today you have created a presence on at least one Social Community available Online today. Whether you are playing poker on Pogo, Twittering on Twitter or connecting on one or more of the thousands of sites available today, you are indeed building an Online reputation.
Do you create profiles using your real name?
If you do in fact use your real name, location and post images and/or blogs about your real life, you may want to be a little cautious. There are so many things that can and have gone wrong with people and social networking sites. Do you make the same mistakes?
Do you use constant foul language when posting to your sites or commenting on other sites?
If your answer is yes...... you are not alone. Many people do and don't realize just how much this could be hurting them.
This implies that you are not educated enough to use real words and honestly just makes you look like an idiot
Do you post pictures that you may regret in a year?
This one is especially for those in High School and College. The pictures you find funny today may not be funny to your prospective employer in a few years.
While sharing pictures is fun, sharing the wrong pictures can be horribly embarrassing.
Do you easily make more enemies than friends online?
Are you so opinionated that you can't possibly find a good enough reason to consider the opinions and statements of others?
This says that you will never be a team player nor could you ever be a leader. People will not want you working for them nor will they want to work for you.
Do you SPAM your followers/friends with crap?
Mobster requests on MySpace, quiz requests on Facebook, I found a way to get 400 followers in a day on Twitter.... BLAH BLAH BLAH! All SPAM and people generally do not like it. I bet even the spammers hate it.
This can say many things. It could simply just mean that your account was hijacked and you need to reset your password OR it could mean that you are always bored therefor boring, annoying, impatient, lacking of a personality and so much more.
How's your grammar?
Do you spell words correctly? Do you use them in the right way? Are you a typonese type where only you really understand what it is you are saying? Please please please use spell check if that's the only thing you end up doing.
This says that you are uneducated, you rush through things and don't care enough to spell check anything. Most of all this says that I don't want you to let anyone know you work at my company.
Do you take your bad day frustrations out on the Internet?
Do you openly complain when you are having a bad day? I mean, we all do, but do you take it too far?
Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed? Running late to work? Kids made a huge mess at breakfast? It's OK, it happens to the best of us and it IS OK to let people know that Fluffy had an accident or Jimmy colored on the wall again. It is NOT OK to use what caused you to have a bad day as an excuse to be rude or mean in posts or comments. If it's that bad of a day, stay away from the Internet. You'll thank yourself later.
Complaining about your job.
The worst thing you can EVER DO. For example:
Why would you do this and no I wont hire you. Why would I want you bad mouthing my company because you are having a bad day? Can you say cheap shot?
Anyways, the point of this post is to show you that there are real and serious dangers in posting too much information on the web.
The first thing you need to remember is that even of you do delete something, it isn't necessarily erased from the web. Keep that in mind when posting pictures and well anything.
Next, you may not be actively looking for a new job or thinking about what could happen if you did need to look for something new, but complaining about your job will not be very pleasing to a new employer. Companies are starting to check you out on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and well they basically will Google your name.
Also, no matter if you have kids or not always ask yourself if you want your children or parents to see what you are about to post. Disastrous things can happen.
So.... You have a picture of a friend passed out at a party with liquor all around him or her. Do you post it on your MySpace page for everyone to see? I'm sure you will, but remember what could happen if you do. You could piss someone off or get someone in trouble. Would you want someone to do that to you?
The moral of this post is to think before you react Online. You could very well live to regret it. Instead use these platforms to your advantage. Use them to find old friends, make new friends, tastefully advertise your business, find lost family members and so many other things. The Internet is a wonderful tool when it is used properly.
One last warning, please be careful on the Internet. There are many crazy, sick and deeply disturbed people Online. Be careful with how much information you give out.
