What I Reveal Online

When it comes to online social networking sites, I am very careful about what I reveal to people. This is especially true with MySpace because most of the time, everyone can view your profile. I am generally a little more lax about this practice on Facebook since I chat with close friends and family only.
I am not one of those people (you know who you are) who have to publish their status seemingly every waking moment of the day. I find myself to be an introverted person, and am not always willing to let others know what I am thinking about. When interacting with someone, if I am going to tell him or her personal information about myself, I prefer that it happen face to face.
Wood and Smith define self-presentation as “The process of setting forth an image we want others to perceive (52).” When it comes to my online profile, I like to portray myself as a person who loves to help others, is a sports fanatic of all kinds, has a spiritual side, along with caring for family and friends. It is important to present my image as a person that is well liked and can be trusted.
I choose to not put very many pictures online of myself. For one thing, I own two digital cameras, but find that I never use them that much. The pictures that I do post are ones that show me in Canada volunteering during Spring Break and another one of me in my racing wheelchair. Many of my friends like to post numerous pictures on their Facebook and MySpace accounts. While they are sharing these images with friends, some could be seen as demoralizing.
Having never applied for a paying job, I feel that I have learned valuable information from other people about what you should or shouldn’t post online about yourself to potential employers. That would be terrible to be denied a good paying job by having your potential boos see something online from a night that you wanted to forget.
It isn’t a good idea in my opinion to be posting one’s phone number even it is intended solely for friends or family. With that type of information, I would rather call on the phone or meet face to face. That just seems to be asking for someone to steal your identity or harm you in potentially in others ways.
When somebody puts their face or other information on the Internet for others to view, they may not be thinking or aware of the dangers that it could pose. Who is to say whether a night on the town that you have posted pictures from is going to impact you in the future. You may think that the images and information you produce may not have negative consequences, but they might bite you when you least expect it to happen. We have all seen the evening news stories involving people, especially children who believe what they say and do on the web is confidential. All too many times this can backfire in one way or another. One way is through the use of cyber stalking, “When someone is the target of repeated harassing or threatening electronic communications” according to the Attorney General’s Office in 1999 (96). Fortunately I have never been the victim of cyber stalking and I hope to keep it that way by being cautious about what I post about myself.