When I was reading the State News yesterday, I came across an article about social networking sites. This immediately caught my attention since this is something that we see not only in CEP416 but in our everyday lives. The article not only focused on the traditional Facebook and Myspace pages but Twitter and LinkeIin as well. It notes how Facebook transformed from a social networking site started only for college students to something that has evolved into a networking site for parents (including my dad) and even grandparents! If this doesn't irk you, maybe the fact that employers are using Facebook and other networking sites to screen future employees will. This is something to really keep in mind, especially as future teachers, as to what we're putting online about ourselves. Clearly we're supposed to be the exemplary role models to our students, but do our pages reflect this? The article suggests Googling yourself and seeing what comes up and adjusting your privacy settings from there which is a great place to start.
After I googled myself, I took to browsing through LinkedIn to see what was so different about this particular social networking site. I must say, it's definitely a lot more serious and straightforward then other networking sites. Your profile page is basically a built in resumee (Which you can also update to the site). Education and work experience are included on your profile page as well as what you're currently working on. You can search jobs, people and companies and ask questions to professionals. As a current student who won't graduate and be ready for a job for a few years, this site probably won't be too helpful for me yet. As far as the future is concerned, however, I can see it being another tool while on the job hunt.
So at the end of all this social networking talk, a question still rests in the back of mind- when is the line crossed between employment and an online profile? Is it right to judge a future employee based off of a personal profile? And are sites such as LinkedIn just too anti-human contact? I mean, how can you truly get a sense of the personality of a future employee without meeting them in person first, regardless of previous experiences and jobs. As a future teacher, I struggle between the issues of privacy and how much freedom a teacher should have when they aren't on the job. I'm not saying that teachers should go crazy and do absolutely whatever they want when they're not on the job, only suggesting that perhaps social networking sites are being taken a bit too seriously.
If you don't want to worry about any of these things, check your privacy settings and don't add people you don't want to! It's only a virtual world after all and how you use it is up to you, just be careful!
I wish I would've saw this article in the State News. It's so important to remember who the audience is that is looking at our personal network pages. I honestly believe that pages should be professional all the time. When we put vulgar sayings and photos on them we are representing ourselves. It's important to remember that these are our images that are being put out there in public. I do think that employers should be able to look us up and see who we really are. I've always tried to keep my pages as PG as I can.
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