Social Media and Privacy

After watching some videos, listening to podcasts, and reading articles, here is my response to social media and the issue of privacy (assignment listed first):

And, here is an NPR "All Things Considered" with Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen -- executives at Google -- on the topic of privacy and security in the digital age (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..And, let's refresh our recollection of the Carly McKinney news story (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. -- a Colorado-based case involving privacy. (I'm sure you can think of many other similar stories...)As you think about your own base camp site, and your work with learners in networked learning spaces, what are your thoughts about the issue of privacy? What are your concerns, and what are you going to do about them?

This is a topic that has always been an area of concern for me. I remember in high school, a friend said a police officer gave a lecture about privacy online at her school. She told me that the police office showed the students that even though their social media accounts may be set to private, they can still be broken into. To demonstrate this, the police officer opened up a random myspace page and showed them how he could get around the privacy feature. My friend swore up and down that it was my myspace that the police officer used in his presentation in front of the whole school. I feel like this is probably not true, but this has greatly affected me and my online presence. From that moment on, I have always, always been more reserved about what I post online. In addition, being a teacher, I frequently google myself to see what my students would find. I have, on more than once occasion, seen my students googling either myself or another teacher. Due to my position, I'm hyper aware of what is on the web about me. I understand and appreciate the benefits from promoting yourself online, even a professional setting, but absolutely hate the idea that I can be googled and actual information about me can be pulled up my just about anyone. I was really hesitant for a lot of the requirements within this program for that reason. Twitter scares me, especially considering how many kids are on it.

I have honestly just had to sit back and reflect on what I'm posting- is it positive? Is it negative? Who am I okay with seeing this? There's a whole series of questions I ask myself when putting my name on anything on the web. I got people on board with my NLS through word of mouth initially, rather than just posting on all forms of social media about it. After seeing peer reviews, I went through my series of questions and decided I felt okay with posting on some social media sites to spread the word. I think I generally just move slow with this and overthink it to ensure I'm not putting something out there that I would regret- like in the lecture of the future of privacy in social media. She talks about the persistence of online language coming back to kids. I don't want something embarrassing about myself to be permanently accessible and have to continue to see it.