Week 10. Public Audience

First

I sometimes do this search just for fun. I search myself on google to see my presence in the internet. I have a pretty popular Korean name so I was able to find many people that had the same name as me. I think that's a good thing because if I had a big online presence, it would be hard to find the right Young Choi. I first looked at images and I actually found my LinkedIn profile picture as I was scrolling down the page. Just one picture though. Next, on the general search, I was able to find my LinkedIn page. I think that's a good thing too because the whole point of having a LinkedIn page is to expose yourself to the public and make yourself known. My facebook page wasn't identifiable because I had adjusted my privacy settings on my account. Facebook, is something that I would not want to have exposed to the public, so that's a good thing too. I actually changed my facebook name for a while when I was interviewing for co-op, so that my employer would not be able to find me. If I was an employer, and was searching for Young Choi on the internet, I would be pretty impressed with how this kid protected his identity.

Second

I read the article Governing Social Media by Meredith Farkas, and found some things that I can relate to. It's true that you use facebook and twitter to connect with friends and family, but at the same time you are inadvertently exposed to counterparties that you might not want to show the private side of your life, such as your employer, professor, client, etc. I can admit that I have facebook searched people that I don't really know such as my co-workers and I am sure others have searched me as well. Thus, in this setting, anything you say on facebook or twitter is fair game to the public which might include your co-workers and without knowing that you can say something about your work or your co-workers in a negative connotation. People should be aware of this and customize their private settings so that you are not exposed too much to the public. I also agree with Meredith's suggestion that companies should have policy agreements on what their employees can do and write on social media, this will protect both counterparties and it will benefit both sides of business.  Third I think the best way to present myself on the internet is to limit my exposure on the internet. In other words, don’t do any social media such as facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, etc. However, as an active facebook user, I had to think otherwise. I think the most logical way is to adjust the privacy settings on your accounts. For facebook, I know that I can make the posts that I upload “public” or for “friends only” and I can also set if I can be searched by my name or not and also I can limit who can friend request me. And having these selections in mind, you can also be cognizant of what you write or post on your social media service. For me, I always think that my boss is my facebook friend and he can see all of the posts that I make. This will really limit my posts that are negative or inappropriate and essentially keep my page clean and right. However, the more I think about this issue and more I read about it, I think the best way is to not have any presence in the social media world. Or just have one that you can fully manage, such as facebook.