Very important political discourse around here
Sunday, 25 January, 2009 at 10:17 AM Yesterday while waiting for me to find the appropriate clothes to wear for The Serious Storage Unit Work Session I'll tell you about later, sis caught up on a couple of her favorite blogs. Including Slate, where she occasionally filled me in on what she was reading in the piece asking Will President Obama have a computer in the Oval Office? by Nina Shen Rastogi.
This led to a lively discussion concerning the level of technological freedoms (and limitations) afforded to our new president and his staff, now that they're getting settled in. There's a lot to consider. On the one hand, there are real security questions to be addressed. And on the other - assuming that surely the White House has access to technology able to more than handle the security concerns - it would be wrong to so isolate our new Commander In Chief to the extend that he no longer has access to the tools that enhanced the insight and perspective he's known for, in the first place.
The discussion grew to include mention of Twitter and Facebook and other related social media, and just how much access to these sites the White House staff might need. We both agreed that surely the right balance can be struck. Then ultimately this gem from sis:
I'm not sure I want the President of the United States goofing off on Facebook all day.
Because we all know that Facebook, amazing as it is as a communication and networking tool, is also a contender for The Greatest Time Suck Evahhh!!!! And professional and balanced and insightful as he might be, Obama's still just a regular dude, too.
Reader Comments (7)
Great points about social media. About five minutes ago I read another business article about how ridiculous it is for anyone over the age of 25 to be on Face Book. Since I'm the parent of a 24 year old, it has kept me off the site (so far). That, and every time I mention how Face Book might help my book marketing efforts, my son tells me that being on Face Book is only for "the young" and not "the young at heart." He does not just "tell" me. He raises his voice to the tone, "Mom, are you nuts?"
I'd like to entertain comments. Maybe Melody can give us another blog or two about this. My business English class has had a raving debate about social networking, since we all know that potential employers surf the internet to check up on the backgrounds of applicants. If there is the least SILLY thing on Face Book or other sites, it can keep a good person from getting an interview. (Keep in mind that the internet helps human resources dwepartments screen applicants. Before offering an interview, most departments "check-out" the most qualified applicants.) Interesting how social media helps some of our careers and hinders others. I will keep Melody posted about what my 60 job seeking students come up with.
I think the "Wall Street Journal" had an article about Obama's Twitter account being hacked and how the Secret Service closed it down. Now that we have a social networking president, it will be revealing how "at risk" all of our social networking accounts might be for identity theft, etc. Hooray, that Obama's security is so necessary that his secret service men and women might eventually reveal to the world how we are all in some sort of social jeopardy because of the lack of security enforced on these sites. This may create a new bred of jobs for techno geeks to solve such problems and enhance the future of the next generation.
Well THAT triggered a broader response than I expected...cool! Here are a few useful links related to some of the topics you mentioned:
* Twitter-Savvy Hackers Tweak the Twitterati, The New York Time, Jan 5, 09
* WSJ re Twitter compromises, Jan 5, 09
* Why Technology Won't Prevent Identity Theft, WSJ, Jan 13, 09
* Barack Obama's Twitter account, still active, though the fake post no longer appears
Your thoughts about how what we post on our Facebook accounts can affect our ability to find future employment reminded me of this blog post I read a while back: "Trash talking taken to a whole new level, thanks to Facebook". I thought then, and still believe that my Daddy was probably right when, back in high school during a sibling fight emerging from my brother's reading of my journal, he said, "If you don't want anyone to read it, don't put it in writing." I hated the thought that my privacy couldn't be guaranteed, In The Pages Of My Own Private Journal, of all places. But Dad's words have returned to me again and again over the years. Now as a regular blogger (and microblogger via twitter, and Facebook user, too,) it has become second nature to weigh my words before I publish them. For the most part I've found the balance that's right for me. Sometimes I fall on my face.
Ultimately, we've learned over the past few years that less and less of our poor choices are likely to remain safely hidden in preferred obsurity. But this isn't true because of Facebook, is it? Facebook, like everything else online, has become a tool. You can choose to use it in the ways you prefer. The Nobody Under 25 Should Use Facebook crowd may be looking at the question from the perspective limited by the idea that it's merely used to brag about conquests, post photos of last night's frat party, and etc... (Yes, I'm more than aware that I've just played into gross stereotypes about the early twenties. I'm being lazy. This is for effect; overlook it and read on. Thank you.)
Although Facebook was initially developed with college students in mind, it's grown in directions far beyond those origins. To suggest that this social networking tool is merely used for one or another purpose is pretty narrow. And to suggest that Facebook should be limited to the under-25 crowd, at this point, seems pretty ridiculous to me.
As for your boys encouraging you not to be on Facebook, I'm sorry to be the one to point it out, but it's very likely that their reasons are not neutral. I'll quote someone close to me: "If my parents show up on Facebook, I'll shut down my account so fast your head will spin." This friend was recognizing the reality that no matter how much you love your folks, and no matter how much you might love to spend a long weekend with them at a family gathering, you do not, in fact, generally feel that inclined to rub shoulders with them at a party with your peers. There's something similar, I think, about having your parents in your "friend" list on Facebook. Facebook is sometimes the online equivalent of a party. Not always, of course. (Refer back to my assertion that it's a tool, and that people often use it for business networking purposes, rather than social stuff.) It's not that you're doing anything you should be ashamed of, or of which your parents would even disapprove. It's just that sometimes you don't want all the varied elements of your life bumping into each other. There's something to be said for keeping things compartmentalized.
Anyway, your comment opened up all kinds of avenues for discussion, Lynn. I have no doubt that the discussions in your class were lively. And no doubt left incomplete, too. Some questions may never be answered.
As for whether or not you should use Facebook, I'll suggest a different angle altogether, to the question. You could, absolutely, and be well within your rights to do so. But you've got all these books you keep writing, and all these talks you keep being invited to make. You have a blog-driven-website you're maintaining, and we both know that's more, at times, than any sane woman can keep up with. Do you, in fact, have TIME for Facebook?
(Tell Beau he can thank me later...)
You are right. Blogging alone is a full time job. However, Beau thanks you. He can't bear to see me on Face Book. You're correct. He is horrified that a parent would be a friend. To quote a student, "How lame can you get, Mrs. Salsi?"
Glad you got my point. Maybe getting your blog where you want it to be is a great first step. Meanwhile, I now MUST add Beau as my FB friend and see if he rejects or accepts my invite.
Lame, eh?
Enjoy blogging. Some people still find THAT medium progressive. :)
Since I have been quoted here, I feel safe in joining in the discussion. As a disclaimer, I do not remember having ever accessed facebook, but it is talked about very much. There is a lot of give and take here, and more and more people over 25 (apparently including Melody!) have joined.
Melody's quoptation of me came to my mind while the posting was focusing exclusively on the President, but whether as a president, a person under 25 (or even 15), or a parent, it is a given that anything one posts on the internet becomes public--whethere it is what the poster wants or not. Going back to the diary issue, one does have a "reasonable" expectation of privacy, although as Melody said, there is no guarantees. But when one puts it on the internet, any such expectation is only a dream. Here is where personal privacy and parental responsibility collide!
As far as the permanence of internet postings, I am reminded of a quotation from about 1900 years before Facebook. Pontius Pilate was pressured to give the order to crucify Jesus. He knew Jesus was innocent, and declared Him so, but he wrote a senence of death anyway. Pilate's revenge was to write a supersctiption over the cross of Jesus which was politically incorrect. When someone asked him to revise what he had written, he replied, "What I have written, I have written."
When we post anything on the internet, whether it is what we want anyone, including our parents, to read, "What we have written, we have written." Hence my advice to Melody so many years ago--if you don't want it read, don't write it.
All is not lost, however. There is so much to write that is ;wholesome and worthwhile. to the extent that we accomplish that, our writing will be fulfilling and satisfying.
For the record, I'm "over twenty-five!" (but less than one hundred).
Dad/Don
Well I still don't like it that I can't write whatever I want for my own private use, and somehow make it completely invisible to someone else who might snoop in my notebooks. (Although I no longer live with the former snoop, which helps, I suppose.)
Speakin'o'which: got a voice mail message from "little brother" yesterday who thought it imperative to point out that my memory must be slipping since he recalls a similar event occurring when we were in middle school living in a different house. To which I must reply: darlin' although you're right that my memory is slipping, I have a solid memory of where I was standing in the upstairs hallway of the house where we lived when I was in high school, ranting away. And therefore, you are now busted for being a bigger snoop than I'd even recalled.
But to further respond to your phone inquiry: No, I'm not holding grudges and no I'm not any longer upset with you. Those days are past. But, sadly, your adult self will likely continue to be occasionally outed on my blog for the choices your younger self made. Not always, of course, but snooping in a sister's journal doesn't make you a bad brother. It probably just makes you a typical brother, y'know? So I'm not tarnishing your character or anything.
Daddy, thank you for helping prepare me for the world of blogging. And Facebook. Perhaps I came to this process with the broader-based perspective - and judgment - that I needed, than I would have if somebody else had raised me without your insight. :)
Melody, I imagine that you were mad at me when I said that. I agree that we do have a reasonable expectation of privacy, but there is always the possibility that someone, perhaps not a brother or other family member, will read our private writing.
I noticce that the brother did not put his confession in writing on your blog! (Ha!). Maybe he learned the lesson, too?
I just thought of something I heard long ago, myself. A little test of whether we repeat something (now I may be going off on a tangent!) that we hear. I can't find it, but I found a little article about what Socrates said about repeating rumors. I won't add the article, but will include a link to where it can be found. The title is simply, Rumors. The link is:
http://www.warthogsmc.com/Notices/Rumors.html
My, how far I've strayed from whether the President should have a computer with Facebook access in his office!
Love,
Dad