Blogging and Privacy.
If I do a search on my own name, I am surprised at the number of references to myself that date back more than a decade. So, I realize that unlike chatting to my friends, when I blog something I am putting it on the public record for the next decade, if not forever! What are the implications of this? One simple situation, not involving any conspiracy theories or big-brother Orwell scenarios, is a future job interview. I’ve heard that it is quite normal for hiring companies to Google the candidate’s name. What happens if ten years earlier I had criticised the company or predicted the company’s demise on my blog. Would I be better off to maintain a low profile?
My solution: Be non-emotive and professional in all my opinions, and demonstrate good values and integrity. In a decade’s time, if a hiring company finds an opinion or statement that they do not like, I will assume that they will see my willingness to be open and speak my mind as virtues. If not, then they are probably not going to be a good fit anyway.
I’m still undecided as to whether there are topics that I should avoid blogging about. For example, should I avoid blogging about contentious political issues, or religion, or other topics? Or should I see it as my civil duty to blog about anything and everything?
4 Comments
Other links to this post
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
By Shane Legg, February 10, 2009 @ 2:22 am
The situation that causes people the most difficulty is when they are working for a company and then say something about that company on their blog.
Society hasn’t worked out how to classify a post on a blog. It is like saying something around a BBQ after a few beers? It is like a professional reporter writing an article and publishing it in a newspaper? Or something different altogether?
[Reply]
By Kelvin Hartnall, February 10, 2009 @ 3:07 am
I think we can classify these situations into two groups. The first group is all the communications that you have where there is a limited and specific audience. For example, something said to some colleagues around the BBQ, or by email, or IM session, or on a telephone call. The second group are all the communications that are to the public at large. For example, a letter to the editor of a newspaper, calling a talk-back radio host, or publishing a book. In the first group of communications, I think you can safely criticise your company and people accept that this is private. Anything in the second group causes difficulty.
If we consider blogging, I suspect that it sits in the second group. A blog is sort of like a mini newspaper where you are the editor! It is published to the public at large, and therefore even if the readership is very small, I don’t think it is too different to writing a letter to the editor of your local newspaper.
[Reply]
By Greg Day, February 10, 2009 @ 2:05 pm
Hmm, I’ve got to admit I head in a different direction. One of the concerns I have about newspapers is the editing, that in order to keep things ’safe’, they dont print provocative articles that make you think.
I think blogging should be an extension of your personality, communicating what you really think. As to topics… most blogs seem to ‘work’ better if there are a few topics or one major theme. Good luck!
[Reply]
By Kelvin Hartnall, February 11, 2009 @ 4:04 am
Greg, giving thought to your comment, I think I would revise my choice of words ‘professional’ and ‘non-emotive’ in my post. These words imply that I won’t talk about controversial or personal issues in my blog. Actually, I would like my blog to be personal, to express how I truly feel, and to discuss all ideas even if they are provocative. In hindsight, I think that I really just wanted to say that I will maintain good values and integrity.
Concerning having a major theme to my blog, my objective isn’t to build a highly successful blog with a significant or large readership. Instead I intend it to be my personal blog where I discuss the same sort of ideas that I already discuss with my friends via email, etc… Therefore, I will just try to separate my thoughts into broad categories.
[Reply]