I love the way that our culture and technology shape social media, encouraging self-expression and transparency. But it's easy to forget that there are pretty good reasons why we don't, for example, yell about our sex lives at the top of our lungs at the bus stop. Or tweet about that giant city-levelling robot we're building in the basement. Or, ahem, twitter funerals!
Ever had something you reeeeeally wish hadn't shown up on your FriendFeed?
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LOL! Actually, danah boyd and others have been writing about issues of equity around all this "sharing." Namely that power and privilege mediate consequences. She writes:
"Being socially exposed is AOK when you hold a lot of privilege, when people cannot hold meaningful power over you, or when you can route around such efforts. Such is the life of most of the tech geeks living in Silicon Valley. But I spend all of my time with teenagers, one of the most vulnerable populations because of their lack of agency (let alone rights)."
http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2008/02/04/just_because_we.html
For all the potential of social media and the rush to adopt, there are untold consequences that many of us aren't really considering. I don't know if this is denial, foolishness or idealism but it's time we all started thinking a bit more intelligently about what it is we're doing with these tools. Especially those of us who are not holders of power - those of us who are already struggling to keep pace with technology, hold down jobs and support families.
Posted by: Melanie | September 13, 2008 5:21 PM
Rob, That is hilarious & brilliant!
I'm pretty aware of what I put on my feed ("Sobered up in an alley" etc. is not something I'd tweet etc.) That said I see tweets and blog posts almost like that and wonder what they are thinking. (Of course, my personal/humour blog is pretty edgy & I'm happy to only do business with people who think how I am is OK, so...)
Melanie has a good point - teenagers aren't always aware of the reprecussions that their blog posts/tweets/facebook postings might have on a prospective employer or how it might later come to bite them in the...er, getaway vehicle.
Posted by: Monica Hamburg | September 13, 2008 9:20 PM
every time i read rhe word Social i vomit a little in my own mouth
Posted by: jv | September 14, 2008 1:18 AM
I written a few blogs on the social aspect of developer communities myself. Self-expression or the need to share experiences is in my opinion the strongest form of participation in social networks. People access information for professional reasons and contribute to fulfill human needs of self promotion and social acceptance. More interestingly people in developer communities are starting to share photes of their families and their vacations. This helps to make the community member more human, which fosters more social linkages between members making the community stronger.
Then again posting pictures of drunken parties on developer community site might increase you buddy list, but might cause concern with potential recruiters.
Posted by: Juha Harkonen | September 14, 2008 8:40 AM
Absolutely love Rob's work
Posted by: Raj
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September 14, 2008 1:41 PM
I did see a cute girl's tweet exclaiming how "sucky" it was to be out of weed but looking forward to "Mr. X" coming by and dropping some off.
Then I caught the dealer's tweet. "I'm almost there." it read.
True story.
Posted by: Brad B | September 14, 2008 6:52 PM
Funny, I just talked about this in my blog last week.
http://www.thebigklosowski.com/2008/09/want-to-be-president-better-shut-down.html
In 20 years, how many candidates for President will be having to explain their tweets. It's going to be hilarious!
This cartoon is dead on. Good stuff.
Posted by: Allen Klosowski | September 14, 2008 9:25 PM
Allen,
I did not inhale that tweet (or plurk or yammer or pidgin or .. )
Posted by: martin english
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September 15, 2008 6:55 PM
Thanks for the comments, everyone - some great food for thought in there, particularly the role that power and privilege can play in reducing the harm (and maximizing the value) from overdisclosure.
@julia, maybe there's some hope that social expectations will shift, with a recognition that, yes, people do let their hair down sometime. But I suspect, if that happens, it will take a while.
And short of legalization, I don't see a future where it makes sense to Twitter your drug deals. :-)
If the courtroom scene seems a little far-fetched, consider the story of Hossein Derakhshan, a Canadian student born in Iran whose blog convinced border officials that he was a risk for overstaying his welcome in the U.S. (I wrote about his case, and the larger issues of inadvertently assembling a social media dossier on yourself, on the Social Signal blog.)
Finally, @jv, you may want to talk to your doctor - that sounds like acid reflux.
Posted by: Rob Cottingham | September 16, 2008 7:51 AM
We are expanding our social network by sitting in a room through internet. We make friends without actually meeting them. Wow, we are on the right path of building the next generation, what they call, "Society".
Everyone is doing his own business, Who Cares?
Posted by: Janet | September 16, 2008 12:13 PM