The Unforeseen Consequences of the Social Web
The social Web has given users great power: the ability to create and share content with people around the world - easily and quickly. The problem of course, is that power is often not compatible with effective and clear thinking. The thought that germinated in an instant can be immortalized in perpetuity on the Web.
With the extraordinary growth of the Internet and the interlinking of information that the social Web has brought with it, it's time to examine the footprints we leave on the Web as we move into the future that promises to "throttle the 'wisdom of the crowds' from turning into the 'madness of the mobs,'" as described so eloquently by Jason Calacanis.
Search Engines Are No Longer Enough
With Internet usage growing at a remarkable pace it comes as no surprise that comScore recently rated Google as the most popular Internet property in the world, attracting over 777.9 million visitors as of December 2008. Not surprising either is the growth of social and news sites. According to Compete some of the top social sites attracted visitors in the millions during December 2008:
- FaceBook: 59 million visitors
- MySpace: 59 million visitors
- Digg: 33 million visitors
- Twitter: 4.4 million visitors
This growth can be contributed in part to the media as they realize the benefits of instant access to an enormous well of information that the Web provides. As media folk are becoming increasingly tech savvy, they're realizing results from search engines are often lacking. In an effort to gain as much insight into specific topics they are now turning to social sites for research.
Interconnected on the Web
While it's exciting to live in an ever connected and always on world, the flip side that we have to accept is that we also live in a world where information is becoming increasingly interlinked. Today it is relatively simple to follow footprints on the Web if we want to track both people and brands.
For instance, take a look at my public profile on Twitter and you'll notice I can also be found on other sites: BlogWell, ReadWriteWeb and The Drill Down. Visit BlogWell and you'll notice I can be found at WebMama and TechTalkRadio. Visit The Drill Down and you'll see my contact information for Digg. While I occasionally use different user names on sites, I publicly declare my affiliations and unless you know me really well, or have reason to follow me across the Web, you may not realize the relationships I have or where I can be found online by visiting any one site.
While the information about me on the Web is not terribly exciting, I do leave a little bit of information on every site I visit. And therein lies the rub. Say something in passing on a social site and it may come back to haunt you.
There is No Delete Button on the Web
It is becoming increasingly difficult to remove content from the web. The Internet Archive and its Way Back Machine gives you a historical snapshot of a site within seconds. Google gives you cached pages displaying pages that may have been deleted for any number of reasons. Photo sharing sites that store images online combined with services like Twitpic that let you quickly upload pictures to social sites - all of these great social Web resources also leave your historical Web footprints open to dissection in the future.
And although the information you put out on the Web may seem insignificant today, you have to ask the question of whether it will be insignificant tomorrow, or in five years when you need to apply for college or seek new employment. Additionally, you have to ask yourself whether you're just leaving more junk for the next generation to clean up.
New York Times' Policy on Social Networking
Poynter Online recently published the New York Times' policy regarding social networking sites, as provided by The Times' assistant managing editor Craig Whitney. In the memo, Whitney, who is responsible for overseeing journalistic standards, points out that social sites "can be remarkably useful reporting tools," but is quick to warn reporters to take care when using them. "Anything you post online can and might be publicly disseminated, and can be twisted to be used against you by those who wish you or The Times ill."
For a long time, The New York Times Company has had a policy on ethics in journalism and this move to document a social media policy can only be seen as a step in the right direction. However, there are some that see this as one of the reasons "mainstream media is doomed to irrelevance."
For the record, it is possible to remain passionate and true to your beliefs while participating on the social Web. What social sites should not allow - nor excuse - is a belief held by many that common courtesy and simple manners should be bypassed simply because you're not there in the flesh.
Whether you agree or disagree with Whitney's take on the social Web, it's important to recognize this huge step that The Times has taken. It has finally worked out that information on the Web is intricately intertwined. The article is well worth a read.
Getting Caught on the Web with Your Pants Down
There have been many instances where people and corporations have been caught out by content they upload to the Web. Whether the content is an image, a 140 character Tweet, or a blog post, we hope the following examples will give you time to reflect on the content you are uploading today.
Meltdown on Twitter
Last week, the Applicant blog talked about a hypothetical human resource bot in an attempt to persuade its readers of the importance of being aware of what they post to the Web. It was predominantly written to encourage readers to consider the ramifications of outbursts on the Web as applied to career and employment.
The very next day Twitter user Astrospace suffered an online meltdown which was captured as an image and posted on Applicant, giving their hypothetical post a great big shove into reality. "If I were an employer this certainly wouldn't be my ideal applicant, and at this point their brand is without a positive brand image," the Applicant post says.
While Astrospace may have had good reason for his rant (as most of us do), his outburst has now been captured and will possibly remain online for a very long time.
You Never Know Where Your Dulcet Tones will Turn Up
Last year when David Berkowitz boarded a train in New York he heard an argument between a woman and a man. While his first instinct was to get off the train, he made the decision to continue on.
This turned out to be fortunate for those with a sense of humor as he decided to record the argument and it now resides somewhere out there on the Web.
In this instance it may be more difficult, if not impossible to track the folks involved in the argument across the Web, but it still shows the importance of putting your best foot forward when in public - whether online or off.
Do You Know Who's Following You Online?
Peter Shankman recently discovered a seemingly off-the-cuff Tweet by James Andrews, an executive of Ketchum New York.
"True confession but I'm in one of those towns where I scratch my head and say "I would die if I had to live here!"
Sounds innocuous enough right? Not so. Andrews was in Memphis and on the way to meet his client FedEx. Turns out a Fed-Ex employee was terribly offended and responded with an e-mail that was copied to a variety of people including the folks in charge at Ketchum and the execs from Fed-Ex.
According to Shankman, the letter begins like this:
"Mr. Andrews,If I interpret your post correctly, these are your comments about Memphis a few hours after arriving in the global headquarters city of one of your key and lucrative clients, and the home of arguably one of the most important entrepreneurs in the history of business, FedEx founder Fred Smith."
Read the entire e-mail here.
Clearly, what you do on social media leaves traces and cannot be easily removed from the Web. Information can fairly easily be tracked back to you and what you say and do will be public for a long time. Whether you believe in monitoring yourself online or not, don't forget the point of the social Web: to get to know other like minded people, share resources, have fun, and leave the place a little nicer than you found it.
Although we were planning to include a resource list of tools and services to help you monitor your online presence today, we've decided to leave it for next weekend given the length of this post.
As always, your opinion is very much appreciated and we look forward to hearing your thoughts in the comments.
Image Credit: Vu Bui
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I think some of the privacy issues are going to be a big hurdle for sites like Facebook. When I first joined I was able to say things knowing it was just my friends on there. Over time I've accepted family and co-workers making the service a lot more dangerous to me and in turn less fun to use.
To me this will be a big challenge for these services - how to make them open and fun but give just enough control so that people are not so worried about using the service that they just stop using them.
Couldn't agree more. There have been a number of times that I have deliberately stopped posting something on twitter because a number of my coworkers follow me. The last thing I need is to have a rant about a coworker get passed to management.
twitter.com/thenextwriter
Nicholas Carr wrote Sharing is creepy, http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2009/01/sharing_is_cree.php
Steven Levy "Since I don't know many in this mob, I try not to be personally revealing. Still, no matter how innocuous your individual tweets, the aggregate ends up being the foundation of a scary-deep self-portrait. It's like a psychographic version of strip poker—I'm disrobing, 140 characters at a time."
Not only that, but it is then possible to actually STALK someone online by following their 'footprints' on all the social networking sites.
I am on Facebook, but I don't use the applications, they are far too intrusive in my opinion. I am also on Twitter as well and yes, we practically 'leave ourselves wide open' for most of the input to end up coming back to haunt us.
As you rightly point out, there is no way to erase any of it,its there for posterity.
It is definitely a cost-reward type of world in the www sphere... The more people get involved in social media the more evident the implications and forseen consequences will be at the forefront...
We will start haveing warning labels and disclaimers... Warning signing up for (blank) may cause addictions, identity theft, stalking, photoshopping of images...
thanks.
Agreed. Carefulness is the best. I have to admit, every now and then I'll stumble across some profile on some random site that I can barely remember. Occasionally the "About Me" section will include bits that are, shall we say, not true to Tim.
I've been working on "monopolizing" my digital self, but as you said, there are loads of places where our words and thoughts can be held, frozen, for all time. Creepy cool.
I find it's best if you try to remember to never post anything anywhere on the internet that you wouldn't want to read on the front page of your local newspaper.
You never know where and when it might show up.
Facebook or any of the rest of it has never been "fun" for me. It's a communication tool for staying in touch and finding out about stuff but never to share anything that could reflect badly on oneself. I've known about digital copies of things hanging around for a long time. Ever since that petroleum engineer in Texas's door was broken down by the feds in the middle of the night why? because he had sent an email to an Arabic petroleum engineer 4 years prior to 9/11 talking about what was the best material to use in pipes or something and the Arab's name was Osama bin Something, and they thought it was Voldemort...eehh I mean bin Laden. Osama is not that uncommon of a name, and bin means family of.
I may let a little more hair down in private email or on IM but even then I'm careful. If the guy who was my best friend six years ago gets ticked at me and dredges up an archived email from six years ago it might not be so funny now.
Most of the crap we blog, tweet, or FB will be forgotten and lost. But just the one wrong thing will live on forever and come back to bite you.
And as for Twitter, yeh, your profile does paint kind of a mosaic of you over time. But unless you tweet something horrific, the mosaic is kinda impressionistic and I actually kinda like mine and besides I fly under EVERYBODY'S radar.
There are definitely some unforeseen consequences to using social media online. Some may see this as intrusive to privacy and may be hesitant them all the time.
I feel the opposite, I feel social media is helping us progress towards a more inter connected web-life. Meaning, in a few years around 2012 we'll be so connected to the internet we'll basically be the Internet.
A bit over-the-top but I feel we're progressing in an exponential rate with our integration to the web. We'll see though, I think it'll help bring world peace, connect the world more than it is today.
Unforeseen? Google never forgets.
I agree with Pete Quily above - one has to assume that anything you type and send (or record, or video) is going to be used 'in evidence against you' so it's important to be always pause before putting anything out there, and asking how it might look out of context, or in ten years time.
The real skill is to be able to still voice strong opinions, but be fair (and be seen to be fair) in all situations. The danger is being hopelessly bland and ineffectual as a result of worrying about others' potentially negative opinions.
I've come to consider that someone is always going to disagree, agree, and also consider you a moron in either case, so you should always be honest, and say exactly what you think.
I would agree with Peter and David and add that I find this a disadvantage.
There is a tendency nowadays away from circumspection. Personally I find it a good habit to cultivate.
Having said that, I am also of the mind that if you'd be ashamed of someone seeing your name attached to a piece, it may be that it either should not be posted at all... or you need to learn to stand by your positions. Perhaps a combination of the two would be useful.
I think facebook was never meant to be used for marketing and communication purposes, it just grew in that direction over a period of time. F.B people noticed this change and they gave us new tools etc to use. Yes, it is kinda scary to share pictures info etc with family friends colleagues alike, but there are privacy settings. these settings are however, easy to dodge. And i happen to think thats for a reason. thats what makes it more exciting.
Facebook, im not bored of using it, as much as talking and listeing about it.
I agree with David and Lindy. Also, I have no qualms having someone link my name with what I say online. Often I am a bumpkus. Sometimes I have strong beliefs I'm willing to defend. Sometimes I have strong beliefs not founded upon provable facts - not Spock-like logical. Nonetheless, I'm still willing to have them found. (I found them yesterday. I'm prolific.) So there.
Social media as in anything where you expose a piece of yourself (either physically or emotionally) and can be very dangerous to the user.
Context for an event can be lost very quickly, and therefore an innocuous comment in one context can be made to look very bad by inference to another - usually made to look like revealing some inner hatred or fear that may or may not be true.
Paper words have totally different meanings from verbal words, because you lose the tone and inflections of the speaker. And now with the rise of video media, even though the tones and inflections are back, the limitations of time can still inhibit our ability to communicate our true feelings and beliefs.
Our new president harkens back to Great Communicators such as Reagan, Kennedy, Roosevelts, Lincoln and he and his followers have used social media to great advantage.
It is easy to state new thoughts and much more difficult to hide past actions - the problem is which will be the reality of the future actions?
It is fortunate for some and unfortunate for others that a stone now thrown in the Social Media pond casts a much larger, and much more easily recognizable ripple than the old school paper methods of a Diary. I will share my business insights to all who will listen but my personal quips will remain my own.
It is vital to keep in mind that much of social media is a public forum, not a private conversation. We're in the social media monitoring space and our system is based on a constantly growing database of all conversations across social media, over 1.2 billion so far collected. Once your public communication is in our database (most collected in real time) it stays there even if you delete it at its original source. Our tool is designed for understanding what people are saying about brands and reputations in social media so we have to collect everything we can (we do not violate EULAs so, for example, we have relatively little Facebook stuff as it is private) to present accurate sentiment and trends analysis.
The takeaway here, as you point out, is: this is public- so act like you would in public.
Yea, the whole "there is no delete button" part is really scary. I've worried about that for a long time now...
Brilliant post! You are absolutely right. We need to take due care before we publish anything in the internet. It is very easy to profile a person based on their activities in the internet. This can be either a positive or negative effect based on how you brand/project yourself.
The biggest problem I see with the whole social media is Security - identity theft & spoofing. If someone does manage to hack you ID, They can bring down the profile that you had built over years in a matter of hours/days. I would like to see the web moving towards single sign-on with tighter controls to prevent identity theft/Spoofing.
@thesuggestr - You’re right. Privacy is a huge issue and one I’m keenly interested in. It will be interesting to see what happens across all social sites as time goes on.
Unfortunately, I don’t see it as an easy fix. And we are at a point where people are questioning the pros and cons surrounding the social Web. The company that works out the balance will be very fortunate indeed.
@Douglas – It’s a very common problem. People do need to keep themselves in check, well assuming they care for their reputation, and I do think a lot more care than would like to admit. ;)
@Shane - I did read sharing is creepy, but I have to disagree with this sentence from Nicholas Carr's blog:
“Your online self ... is entirely self-created”
It is definitely possible for others to sabotage you on the Web – and create part of your 'online self' - I can take a picture of you at the company’s end of year party – upload it to Flickr, tag it with your name – and oops – there you are, on the Web standing behind the boss giving him a middle finger salute while poking your tongue out. Charming.
However, I did enjoy @stevenjayl article in Wired. It’s a great read for anyone who has ever felt conflicted about putting content on the Web. Check it out here if you haven’t read it yet
@technogran – Absolutely it’s possible to stalk someone. Now that is really creepy.
@Tim – best description I’ve heard ‘creepy cool’ – thanks
@Pete – good advice, thanks.
@Colleen – I guess it depends on your definition of fun.
I have a huge love of the Web and am greedy when it comes to information – just can’t get enough. So social sites are great fun for me. But I do see your point. And I agree, the stuff we put out there is hardly noticed until you muck it up somehow – then suddenly it’s noticed by all.
I have to add I LOVE the Hot Dorkage Twitter policy – I think everyone should have one and yours is one of the best I’ve seen.
@Wynter I agree that social media is moving us forward on the Web, but at the same time, I see the need for some type of personal guideline because of the privacy factor. Otherwise it just becomes a huge mangled mess. And that’s not what the Web is about.
@David – You’ve got a point. There always will be ratbags, but that’s just the same as off the Web. The biggest challenge for many is personal confidence – saying something they believe in and having the strength to back it up with reasonable argument. And you’ve hit the nail on the head. Voice your opinion absolutely, but be fair.
@itspaul I have no problem with marketing, what I do have a problem with is when it’s done badly. There are many instances when marketing has been done well, posted on social sites and received applause. My favorite at the moment is the T Mobile Dance
@fjpoblam – It’s okay to be a bumpkus – I often tend to be that way myself ;)
@Jeff – I have to respectfully disagree. Context is getting better as the Web matures. Notice something written by someone in one place, and it’s a fairly easy task to track it back. It’s one of the reasons we are all enjoying the Web in its present incarnation.
@Social Media Strategy – Sure, what you say is true – right now. But as the Web evolves, I’d like to think that the ‘diary’s’ of the Web will filter down (of course unless you are notable) and clean, useful, relevant information will filter up. At least I'm hoping so. As for personal quips, I think you should be able to still share them – but the whole point is to remember that you are in a public place,
@Martin – I’ll have to check out the tool you speak of. Certainly there are many monitoring tools available (in fact we'll be putting a list together in the next week), but often times I find people either are not aware of them or are confused by the plethora available. I think we’re still at a stage that we need to be educating those who are less Web savvy so they don’t make the mistakes of using stuff that can hurt them (or annoy them) – malware/adware type products. And I’ve seen some beauties.
@Nandu – Why thank you ;) Oh, and what I’d give to have a single sign-on that I could control… I guess the day will come; there are many great minds working on it.
Very interesting post.
In a way, it is not surprising that social applications have unforeseen consequences, by nature they are bound to evolve this way.
Languages also are social structures which have evolved without central control to solve a similar problem (communication). They also had unintended consequences as noone could control their use.
Given the particular properties of the Web and as more and more social structures emerge from it, it will certainly be interesting to watch what happens and which issues they bring up.
As you mentionned, data retention is a particular property of the Web which create privacy issues. I am expecting more.. Who would have thought that a Web year book would become a marketing or recruiting tool?
Here is my take on it if you're interested.
We leave our footprints everywhere we go - in some small way the world is changed constantly by our presence. Social media simply record our impressions in a more lasting way. I think its a healthy thing for us to appreciate this as we are likely to become more cognizant of all our interactions and effects and even more self-aware of our honesty. Maybe behaviors will even change in the real world as a result.
"'Tis better to have loved and lost // Than never to have loved at all." ... and the internet can quote me quoting Alfred Lord Tennyson as I reflect on the theme of this post.
Great article. On the other hand: this just goes to show, that you should always be aware of what you say, where, and to whom. Topics important in this context are "politeness" (deemed unnecessary on the web by many; what a great misunderstanding) and confidentiality. Maybe this is the essence of "surviving in the social web".
It is nothing new, though. This rule of thumb was a good one since humans learned to talk. It is just a bid harder these days to "be aware" when you don't see the people, who are listening to you (or reading your utterings) anymore.
This is a very good, well-thoughtout piece.
The concept of thre being "no delete button" on the web is especially pertinent when starting out a new site and filling it up with garbage just to check the layout, etc. However, you can use a robots.txt file to exclude a site (or section) from both Google and the Wayback Machine until you're ready to take it public.
The permanence and accessibility of online content warrants the need for businesses and individuals to constantly monitor their online reputations. With the increasing popularity of social networking sites and search engines, Online Reputation Management is becoming more valuable than ever.
Exellent post. I absolutely agree that it is better to be 'safe than sorry'. Unfortuntely there are times when a spur of the moment online vent can wreak havoc in cyber never-never land. Security issues bother me the most and I notice from the comments above that I am not alone in this fear.
Conversely there is delicious excitement in being involved in the social cyber-sphere and I must say that I have made some excellent contacts along the way.
So onward and upward - I will keep watch for the 'screw-ups' and then make a concerted effort not to mimic any of them.
isn't this why we have multiple identities on the web?
Great article. Can I translate it? Its such a shame that language skills could be a barrier to sharing information, or to becoming aware of great ideas, projects, articles etc.
Hello,
This is a very good article for those who express their opinions openly on the web. I come across a lot of comments that people leave, and the ones that are negative, of course are not well perceived. Unfortunately, they do not realize the impact of these posts, because I believe they think the web is a lot bigger and stuff will just fade away. Comments should express that persons point of view, but if they cannot leave constructive criticism, maybe they should keep their thoughts to themselves. Like my Mom always said...If you have nothing good to say, then keep it to yourself.
kind of disturbing.. now even your facebook profile can be scanned by google crwaler, and all of your public information is completely exposed to the world.
"all of your public information is completely exposed to the world" -- That's sort of what "public" means. I don't quite understand why people get worked up when they put information out where anybody can see it and then anybody does.
Posted by: Ken Sheppardson
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January 29, 2009 7:37 AM
I wonder how long before an entire industry springs up around marketing and managing an individual's personal brand online. It already exists with musicians, actors, politicians, etc...but I could see a big move toward professionally developed Facebook profiles and well-trained creative writers spending an hour or two a day commenting for a client on whatever blog seems relevant to the personal image they are trying to build.
I didn't see the counter view mentioned, may it not be the case that those who have NO online history will be ones employers and others are suspicious of. Better the devil you know, perhaps.
I can't wait to see how this makes an impact on employment law. Can you legally discriminate against someone for online behavior? How can you be 100 percent sure that you have the right person? (It's easy to lie online, or just mix up names)
Even if they get the right person how much does your 6 year old personal behavior really impact your work performance today? You are not the same person at 16 that you are at 22 or 25 by a long shot.
wow... lovely article... thanks
Then I guess we have to face the consequences if we want to continue creating and sharing information across the web.