Privacy Please

During a scholarship dinner tonight, the topic of internet security came up, specifically incrimination from the things that one posts online.

It's true that people are losing jobs and job prospects through something as innocuous as an image of them holding a wine glass. What that forces me to consider is the content one posts on a blog. Technically, by typing these things out, one is making errant thoughts available to the perusal of the public. While I have posted nothing of which I would be ashamed or embarrassed, I am still mildly concerned because you never know what will offend the sensibilities of another. Now, you can't go through life pleasing everyone, but it would be terribly nice to stay on potential employers' good books. Call me crazy, but it really does seem like a good idea.

That calls into question, then, the reliability of internet personas. We end up projecting this image of ourselves,  a cleverly orchestrated mix of all of our better attributes and none of the foibles that make us human, and I daresay accessible as a human being. Is it safe to voice anger, frustration, disappointment, sadness, or inner turmoil? Would that make one come off as vicious, immature, or unstable? It could certainly be interpreted as such, even when the person in question is as compassionate, reasonable, and sane as you or I — well, not necessarily sane, but certainly within the realm of socially acceptable, idiosyncratic personality ticks.

What irks me is the unspoken expectation that one is supposed to be "perfect" all the time in this sort of forum. By "perfect," I mean "happy." Perhaps one is allowed to be unhappy once in a while, so long as it is expressed in terms couched in hope and positivity. Entities should not be commented upon, though situations certainly may as they are transient and less likely to cause another to take personal offense. The truth of the matter is that I don't have the energy to sustain that sort of optimistic outlook all the time, and I do believe that I have a right to my very human emotions. They just need to stay locked up in my physical journal and out of this electronic one.

I do question the ethics of using Google to look up "dirt" on prospective employees. It's a punitive practice, designed to unearth embarrassments that may have no real bearing on one's ability to do the job, and do it well. Still, I don't see it ceasing any time soon, and so the rest of the world and I bind ourselves to online hypocrisy and hope that our names never come up in a search engine associated with anything less than that which is pristine and prudish. Excuse me while I go bury my head in the sand.