Facebook Em Danno
Spotlight On
by Clark Westfield
February 2012
Curious thing about the Internet: You can run but you cannot hide. You think it, you write it, you hit that little send button and seconds later it’s out there for all the world to see. For. All. Time. You might think that only your ”friends” or “friends of friends” will be able to see it but you’d be wrong. There are 12 year olds with the hacking skills of a CIA operative. There are corporate IT experts who can monitor an employee while he sits tweeting in his Tommy Hilfiger’s. There are Apple employees who can solve binary equations, design a stealth coffee maker and start your car while they sip a latte at Starbucks. You get the idea. Don’t write it unless you can live with the feedback. And blowback. This is why your humble scribe still loves his typewriter. How many of us have had misgivings about something they posted on Facebook while in an emotional state, or a vulnerable mood, or after watching a Taylor Swift video? But enough about Jim Carrey… This is the age of TMI (too much information), which is to say that I really, really don’t need to know the names of Newt Gingrich’s girlfriends, the size of Kirstie Alley’s waist or the name of Beyonce’s baby (Blue Ivy).What I do need to know is that I am safe and secure in the knowledge that whatever
I posted on my “wall” is not going to come back and “byte” me in my Droid. BTW, don’t ever send me a Farmville or Mafia request and under NO circumstances are you allowed to “poke” me. I will “unfriend” you faster than Rick Perry ran back to Texas. There are several stories detailing the pitfalls of a thoughtless tweet or a preposterous post. There is the teacher from Long Island who bragged about partying with her students (fired). There was the police officer who detailed his harassment of minorities (suspended). And let’s not forget the comedian who joked about a very famous mouse (never seen or heard from again). New Jersey is not immune to this Spamish Inquisition. Recently a member of the Camden School Board ran into some trouble for running his mouth about his dissatisfaction with the city’s handling of it’s young criminal element and may have referred to them as terrorists.
Oops. Needless to say, the city leaders found out about it and were not too thrilled with his choice of words. For his part, the initial surprise and shock of the perpetrator gave way to a righteous anger about the invasion of his privacy and the trampling of his first amendment rights. Geez, you’d have thought he was playing “Words with Friends” after the cabin doors were closed on a jet or something! Inconceivable!! Here is my question: Should a person serving in an official public capacity be held accountable for posts on his or her Facebook page? And what is the difference between making a comment like this on Facebook and saying it to friends in his or her living room?
OK, that’s actually two questions. I want to hear back from you on this one readers.
Just remember I will be reading ALL your comments. And so will my friends and friends of friends… Kidding. I have no friends.
More to come…CW