Sunday, December 04, 2005

Your Life is on the Internet!

I have periodically wondered about how our lives are on the Internet, and what the implications of this fact are. For example, this blog tells the world my views, and yet this may not be desirable when I'm seeking employment (for example, a potential employer may be uncomfortable with my conservative views on abortion and politics).

Well, this cuts even deeper. After reading something in a blog I follow, I was curious and looked up some friends' profiles on popular "networking" sites such as Friendster and Hi5. In the course of doing this, I discovered that someone I consider a close friend had recently lied to me about something personal. Sure enough, while snooping, I discovered more about her personal life than I had necessarily wanted to know. While I could write a philosophical post querying why people lie (and I intend to write a broader musing at some point), it also highlighted for me not only how the Net is, in so many ways, impacting our lives, but also how trusting we are currently with putting personal information we would not want even our family members to know out there for strangers to read!

So where does this revolution go? As we acknowledge the proliferation of blogs, personal web pages, networking sites and the like, I can't help thinking there will be a backlash, when people realize how this information can be abused. Bloggers have already discovered the pitfalls of openly sharing their views with the world, often getting fired from their jobs, and I for one would not be averse to deleting (or making anonymous) this blog before I seek real work after grad school.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Internet has also changed the way we interact with each other. We don't necessarily pick up the phone and chat any longer, we may just send a short message on the email. It has reduced the quality of interaction but may have increased the quantity of interaction.

I agree with you on not deleting your blog. Deleting or making ur blog anonymous would be like hinding your personality or even worse, deleting your personality.