I now have a blog, a Twitter account, I have more email addresses than is sensible, I’m on LinkedIn, Facebook, Yammer at work and have a website (which is seriously in need of an overhaul, but that’s a different subject. And project). Is all that “connectivity” good? Are we really improving our communication? Are we communicating at all, or just adding to the cacaphony of electronic noise out there, with all these different social media devices? I’m not sure of the answer, but I’ve obviously made my decision to add to the…whatever it is. Conversation? Whistling in the dark? Connecting?
It can definitely add to the creepiness factor if you’re not careful. In working on a series of projects with a vendor, my primary contact and account manager is a woman I’ve never met in person, but I got curious the other day when we were talking, doing the short obligatory “what’s the weather like where you are?” and so forth, and wondered what she looked like. So I Googled her name and within about 20 seconds had a photo from her LinkedIn profile. We’re now “friends” on Facebook (quid pro quo and all), but it struck me that if I can find a person’s photo that quickly, imagine what someone who REALLY knows what they’re doing could discover! Cathy (my lovely spousal unit) only just recently got a Facebook account; she prefers her anonymity but I suggest that’s an illusion. We remain anonymous not because no one can find out stuff about us, but because there’s so MUCH out there that we disappear into the background…the proverbial needle in a haystack.
About BigBill
Stats: Married male boomer.
Hobbies: Hiking, woodworking, reading, philosophy, good conversation.
Connectivity or anonymity?
I now have a blog, a Twitter account, I have more email addresses than is sensible, I’m on LinkedIn, Facebook, Yammer at work and have a website (which is seriously in need of an overhaul, but that’s a different subject. And project). Is all that “connectivity” good? Are we really improving our communication? Are we communicating at all, or just adding to the cacaphony of electronic noise out there, with all these different social media devices? I’m not sure of the answer, but I’ve obviously made my decision to add to the…whatever it is. Conversation? Whistling in the dark? Connecting?
It can definitely add to the creepiness factor if you’re not careful. In working on a series of projects with a vendor, my primary contact and account manager is a woman I’ve never met in person, but I got curious the other day when we were talking, doing the short obligatory “what’s the weather like where you are?” and so forth, and wondered what she looked like. So I Googled her name and within about 20 seconds had a photo from her LinkedIn profile. We’re now “friends” on Facebook (quid pro quo and all), but it struck me that if I can find a person’s photo that quickly, imagine what someone who REALLY knows what they’re doing could discover! Cathy (my lovely spousal unit) only just recently got a Facebook account; she prefers her anonymity but I suggest that’s an illusion. We remain anonymous not because no one can find out stuff about us, but because there’s so MUCH out there that we disappear into the background…the proverbial needle in a haystack.
About BigBill
Stats: Married male boomer. Hobbies: Hiking, woodworking, reading, philosophy, good conversation.