Your life online

In this digital era, we all have an online presence. And it will follow us for the rest of our lives. Once something is posted online, its hard to erase it. You can delete it but if anyone has copied it, it is completely out of your hands.

When I first started blogging I was somewhat concerned with privacy and how open I would be about my personal life. Now I am also on Linked In, Facebook, and more online communities that I can remember. The concern if I ever wanted to look for a job and what if they found my blog and how (un)healthy I really am and would never hire me due to the fear that cancer cooties are contagious or that I might drop dead at my desk?

That never happened. I did look for a job at one point and got it and they still don't know all about my health (and I have not dropped dead at my desk) so I think I am safe.

However, I am careful on line. I do not blast my political opinions at everyone on Facebook. I do not spew profanity laced, misspelled tweets. I try to write articulately so I make sense in my blog posts.

Sometimes I wonder about people who do these things ever wonder about the impression they are leaving with outsiders? I am personally turned off by some diatribes online that I unfriend people or leave groups. I do this also if there are too many unprintable words or enough misspellings that warrants a trip back to high school English class.

This morning I found a good example of this where college seniors are being forced to clean their online profiles so they do not impinge on job hopes. The advice given is don't write anything you wouldn't want a parent or employer to see.

Well I don't really do that because I wouldn't be too happy if my boss read my blog post as I like to keep my personal and business lives separate. But I do write with the knowledge that what wouldn't my mother want to see - she reads my blog and follows me on Facebook - so its really true for me. But it does keep me in line and help keep the profanity level low.