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I resisted signing up for Twitter for a long time. Really. “What do I need Twitter for?” I would scoff. (And so great was my disbelief, it caused me to end a sentence with a preposition. Horrors!) After all, I’m blogging all the time, plus I’m trying to keep up with the blogs I read, and email, and online news, and really, why in the world would I want a place to periodically report on my current status in 140 characters or less?
But I signed up and started following some of my favorite bloggers, and people would often tweet (look at me using the lingo! That’s what you do on Twitter, you tweet) amusing little things, and so I found myself tweeting now and then, and then I got my iPhone and discovered that being stuck in a meeting was a lot more entertaining if I could surreptitiously tweet “This is the meeting that never ends, never ends, never ends…” while I was fighting to stay awake.
At the heart of what it is—which is, admittedly, an interface created to let people broadcast whatever they’re doing at any time, lending credence to the notion that people actually care what you’re doing right this very second—Twitter is seen by many as yet another shrine to narcissism. “I’m so important, you need to know what I’m doing! Always!” I have to say that I don’t really view it that way (although I’ve certainly seen people using it like a giant golden microphone); it’s just sort of goofy and fun to see what other folks choose to share and to be able to spout off on the spur-of-the-moment, sometimes.
Fun! Before I knew it, I was spouting off regularly! Why, I had over 300 followers, too!
So, um, one day I was scrolling back through my updates and realized that I was being completely unprofessional. I mean, it’s not a professional venue, though, right? Who cares!
Except that everything I was tweeting was accessible to… anyone. And was out there, and searchable, and being cached on Google. In fact, if you Google Mir Kamin, my Twitter page is the third hit.
I had one of those little epiphanies: This is Not Good.
Again, it’s common sense but I’d overlooked it: In a digital age, everything you put out there is on the record. And people can and will consult that record when considering whether or not to hire you.
I had two options: Change the things I say on Twitter or change the level of accessibility.
After a bit of soul-searching, I determined that what I like about Twitter best is the ability to make a random comment on the current state of affairs in my life—whatever I may be feeling. I don’t want to feel like I have to censor that. I already engage in a moderate level of self-censorship when I blog, and I really enjoy the letting-it-all-hang-out aspect of Twitter, by comparison.
The logical course of action, then, was to make my updates private. I’m no longer “on the record;” people can only see my updates if I authorize them to do so. In the process of going private I somehow completely messed up and lost most of my previous followers by accident, which is another story altogether, but I’m relieved that I made a better choice before a wayward word or two came back to bite me.
There’s a part of me that thinks I’m missing the point of “social networking” when I purposely close down access to my page, but then there’s another part of me that’s slightly relieved that I’ve remembered that not everything needs to be available to everyone on the internet. Heh.
Do you use Twitter? Do you worry about what you say there, if you do?
This entry was posted on Thursday, April 24th, 2008 at 7:41 am and is filed under My boss is an idiot.
Tags: privacy, professionalism, social networking, twitter
April 24th, 2008 at 9:55 am
Yeah, this is a tough one. What kinds of tweets were you starting to have second thoughts about? I tend to want to tweet about more personal things, in part to avoid breaching the confidentiality of my work, but then it looks like I have no personal life at all. Anyway, thanks for raising the issue.
April 24th, 2008 at 9:58 am
Pamela: Right, I enjoy the more personal stuff like “right this moment I may just pop this child’s head off, see if I don’t” or whatever, but what is funny to me in the moment could haunt me later on, you know?
This “being a professional adult” thing is somewhat overrated.
April 24th, 2008 at 10:17 am
Twitter does have a weird sucking in thing about it. It is good for developing online interaction though, at least for me. I’ve found myself having more conversations with other bloggers whose blogs I often don’t comment on.
But I understand what you mean about the spur of the moment getting to you. I announced that I resigned from my job almost immediately on twitter but didn’t say it on my blog for another three weeks (on my last day of work I believe). It’s easy to forget that everyone and anyone can see what you write.
April 24th, 2008 at 11:24 am
haha i have twitter and it scares me so mine has been ‘private’ since i started it. Basically if you want to follow me i just have to ‘allow’ it!
i just dont say much though because i am also afraid of the ‘hmm what if it’s funny now but not later? what if it’s dumb?’ paralysis. though occasionally i just can’t resist and i send out a twitter, and thankefully, no one says anything! i go with the notion that no news = goodnews!
anyone use the feature that puts your tweets on your blog?
April 24th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
I’m not Twittering - yet. I’m still on the fence about it. I can definitely see the “sucking in” factor that Sassymonkey mentioned in her comment, and that makes me apprehensive about even starting with it.
And Mir, the “narcissism” discussion is one of the things I’ve considered about it too - inviting people to “follow” you around on Twitter. It’s like a virtual entourage. And with my luck, I’d have no “followers” at all - and that would just make me sad.
April 24th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
I don’t worry much about what I tweet, but then no one really CARES that much at this point. From a professional standpoint, though, I see what you’re saying. Twitter should be for friends and internet friends and for bloggers you are mildly stalking ;), not for companies that are thinking about hiring you. That would be like giving them access to the text messages on your phone. Yikes! If it makes you feel better, I didn’t see anything in your tweets that you should worry about, oh and I was one of those followers that you lost, so I requested to follow you again. Now that I’ve written a story in your comment box, I’ll leave.
April 24th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
The follower part is a bit weird to me. Look, I have followers! I feel like a shaman or something. Heh. It has its moments of fun, but I do understand what you mean, Mir.
April 25th, 2008 at 12:25 am
I try to limit twitter to mini-live blogging of events or broadcasting WIM blog posts. I save my best stuff for you all.
I work so hard to keep from being sucked in, but I fear I’m gonna lose. I’m so easily addicted.
April 25th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
I do use Twitter. I use my blogname, not my real name, and that helps a little. I’m not as popular as you are, either, so not as many people will see my Tweets.
Being a D-lister has its advantages!
April 28th, 2008 at 7:50 am
I use the mental screen of imagining that certain people who don’t like me are reading it, and thus I don’t say much of import: anyone with an axe to grind wouldn’t find much ammunition there, which is how I intend to keep it. (I don’t dangle my prepositions, but I DO mix my metaphors!)