Well I went and did it, I now have a Google+ account. Is account the right word? Anyway, that adds to the growing list of social media where I can be found. Three email accounts, one for work, one I have had forever and one that doesn’t crash when used on my smart phone. Then there is the Company Web site, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and of course this personal blog.. All just so I can stay in touch, communicate, and promote myself.
Throughout my life I have moved often and in each new place; where no one knew me, where no one knew my past failures, I asked how should I act? and what should I change about myself? Was I timid before? I’ll change, I can be out going. Was I wimpy? I can be tough. With each new geography I was offered the opportunity to start over. Each of these new forms of social media offers me the same opportunity to create a new me! Each medium offers me a new image, a new brand if you will, so I jump in.
Its a lot to manage. There is my family, work, church, political, and social images that I need to maintain. As they say in the marketing business I need to target my messages. Say the wrong thing to the wrong audience and one of your images can be severely tarnished. Do I want potential employers to have insight to my family or church life? What if customers stumble onto this blog? What is considered inappropriate in one setting but possibly appropriate in another could have lasting and unintended effects on portions of my life. Seems regularly we hear of a Facebook or Twitter post that costs someone their job. But errant communications are not new, the intercepted note passed in school, the party line eavesdropper, the tape and video recordings can all prove embarrassing at the least.
There is a difference between true friends and Facebook friends, LinkedIn contacts, Twitter followers, Blog readers, or members of my latest circle. Electronic friends require me to post, true friends allow me to be quiet. Electronic friends shout in disagreement with a post, true friends coach me. Electronic friends share my embarrassment with their friends, while true friends hide my shame. To my electronic friends I am careful with my brand, with true friends I can be myself.
True friends understand my heart and the complexity of life, work, and faith. True friends allow for the expression of thought, fears and doubts. If they intercept an errant message in public they simply wad it up and toss it out… in private they let me know how stupid I was…
think I only have a couple of those friends left, better put down the computer and check. Is there an App for that?
david
