"There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized." Orwell, 1984.
I am a person, I am not a product. I have No Logo.
One of the reasons I wanted to be a librarian was because I loved the fact that there was a place that provided all-comers with access to information, that pretty much the whole of human knowledge and creative endeavour was available for free or at little cost to anyone, loaned without judgement or censorship. Anyone could educate themselves at a public library and many did. At the time it was also one of the only places left in the built environment that contained no advertising and no one was trying to exploit anyone or make a profit from them by selling them things they didn't need.
That was then and this is now. When you have been knocking about the Internet since 1994 you develop an understanding of the etiquette involved in online communication. At the beginning there was just orange text on a black screen and everyone was anonymous, now people publicly share 'almost' everything. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. I remember the first time I saw a death notice on someone's personal blog and seeing those still makes me very uncomfortable. I observed the difference in American openness and British reserve and the all levels in between.
I'm sorry but I'm not vain enough to do a vanity check.
I mention my personal interests online, I have nothing to hide and if an employer decides not to employ me because of something controversial that I've said online then that is fine too, I probably wouldn't want to work for that employer anyway. People will misjudge you no matter how contrived your personal online presence. I also appreciate seeing people online in all our wonderful, mixed up, messed up, endearing humanness, wouldn't it be boring if we were all trying to project an image of perfect professionalism, all the time? Different perhaps for younger generations doing their growing up online, I can see a need for guidance there.
Having said all that, I do however see the need to promote the services and resources that a library offers and that we as librarians help people use on a daily basis. I'm all for reaching out to people, we've always done that whether it was putting up a poster to advertise a workshop back in the good old days or using all the means of communication that the social web now offers.
Photo credit Dead Yankee
I am a person, I am not a product. I have No Logo.
One of the reasons I wanted to be a librarian was because I loved the fact that there was a place that provided all-comers with access to information, that pretty much the whole of human knowledge and creative endeavour was available for free or at little cost to anyone, loaned without judgement or censorship. Anyone could educate themselves at a public library and many did. At the time it was also one of the only places left in the built environment that contained no advertising and no one was trying to exploit anyone or make a profit from them by selling them things they didn't need.
That was then and this is now. When you have been knocking about the Internet since 1994 you develop an understanding of the etiquette involved in online communication. At the beginning there was just orange text on a black screen and everyone was anonymous, now people publicly share 'almost' everything. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. I remember the first time I saw a death notice on someone's personal blog and seeing those still makes me very uncomfortable. I observed the difference in American openness and British reserve and the all levels in between.
I'm sorry but I'm not vain enough to do a vanity check.
I mention my personal interests online, I have nothing to hide and if an employer decides not to employ me because of something controversial that I've said online then that is fine too, I probably wouldn't want to work for that employer anyway. People will misjudge you no matter how contrived your personal online presence. I also appreciate seeing people online in all our wonderful, mixed up, messed up, endearing humanness, wouldn't it be boring if we were all trying to project an image of perfect professionalism, all the time? Different perhaps for younger generations doing their growing up online, I can see a need for guidance there.
Having said all that, I do however see the need to promote the services and resources that a library offers and that we as librarians help people use on a daily basis. I'm all for reaching out to people, we've always done that whether it was putting up a poster to advertise a workshop back in the good old days or using all the means of communication that the social web now offers.
***This post is dedicated to all the librarians of the world who do not have an online presence, you are still doing valuable work, you are not forgotten.***
"People will misjudge you no matter how contrived your personal online presence"--here, I think, is the argument that speaks most powerfully to me on this topic. I think there's great sense in "behaving well" online, just as there is offline--that is axiomatic. But trying to limit or control how others perceive you is a battle that (as far as I'm concerned) isn't worth fighting.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post, I've enjoyed reading it.
I totally agree - although must admit I did the vanity check! I have a personal and a professional presence but of course there's no way of knowing which one any future employer will discover. Hopefully I've been sensible enough in both, without being boring! You mention using all means of communication - I guess that takes us nicely into Thing 4 - and so you have my brain working overtime again. Main thought being - there are too many means now!
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