Hey there! It is finals time for Sawyer Business School! Two of my three classes have exams. So, yes, I am a little stressed. Working full time and going to school at night is tough especially with three classes. I also had probably one of the worst weeks ever leading up to exam week which was no help. I'll post more about finals and classes for next term later in the week.
Right now I want to share something I came across today...
Earlier this morning while trying to relax a bit before going to work, I started to catch up on many of the emails I get from friends and colleagues through social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. (I am a HUGE networking fan if you have not noticed from my previous posts and I love the social networking sites for keeping in touch with former classmates, colleagues and long distance friends.) I came across an invitation on Facebook to add a woman whom I did not recognize to my list of friends. Apparently, the woman went to my high school and was already friends with some of my other friends on Facebook. I refused to connect with her (or in Facebook speak I "ignored" her friend request) because I did not like some of the pictures she had posted to her photo album page.
Does this seem harsh? Maybe it is over the top, but I like to think that I am protecting myself by being judicious about whom I allow into my social networks. I do this with friends that I spend time with anyway, so why would I not do it on-line too? In fact, I keep my Facebook, Plaxo, Tagged, LinkedIn, and Reunion pages at a security level so that only people in my network can see the majority of my personal information -- especially pictures.
Soon after refusing the Facebook connection, I ran across the following article posted as a warning on LinkedIn:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2008/12/court_rules_against_teacher_in.html
It is a December 3, 2008 Washington Post Computer Security blog entry entitled "Court Rules Against Teacher in MySpace 'Drunken Pirate' Case" by Brian Kerbs. (Sorry! I could not find a permalink. Use the blog title to search if the link above no longer works.) The article is a follow up on a student teacher who was denied her teaching degree a few days before graduation because of a photo she posted to MySpace!
Hmmm.... perhaps my refusal to befriend people on Facebook is not so harsh after all.
