WEB 2.0 – HELLO THIS IS ME!

The advance of internet technology from text-based messaging and static content to rich multi-media interactive publishing is now the expected norm. Web 2.0 has spawned so many social networking and publishing sites. People have become famous celebrities overnight or have become the internet pariahs after one blog page.

I was reading about a chap in Australia who advised his employee that he was too sick to come to work. When the employer asked for a medical certificate, he declined stating privacy issues. Little did he realise that his boss was reading the employees’ blog post in Facebook where he was proudly claiming that he was too trashed after a booze party and didn’t feel like going to work. When confronted by his boss with the employee’s own evidence, there was nothing else he could say but to tender his resignation.

Just have a look at Facebook, Youtube and many other social networking websites and blogs. The amount of personal information, private details and video clips shared on these sites begs the question, “Does the author know (or care) that the information is now open to the rest of the world?” Or is the intent to overexpose oneself for some form of claim to fame or self-gratification?

Have you typed an email and hit the SEND button and then within seconds you want to retract that email? Yes you can use your admin privilege and delete your blog entry. But while you are doing it, your content is already published for the whole world to see.

Has Web 2.0 created a false sense of privacy or an illusion that what you have just posted on your blog only appears on your screen and won’t be seen by many? When Adam and Eve sinned and were confronted by their Maker, they did not realise that they were naked either.

Caveat Emptor - “Let the buyer beware” is the term used in making a purchase. Before you rush into Web 2.0 announcing “Hello this is me” you may need to pause and consider a Web 2.0 caveat “Let the publisher beware that you and you alone are responsible for what you publish”. Web 2.0 may have a sting in its tail and you as its target for destruction! Have you been stung by your own web content?