Last week’s poll revisited a question first asked back in 2008 about how your watch TV. I was interested in seeing just how things have changed with people’s TV subscription habits as new technology has become more widespread and easy to access for less than traditional media delivery systems. While I figured OTA and Internet delivery methods would be making gains on Cable and Satellite providers, according to this poll that’s simply not the case at all. In fact even though there were more respondents, the percentages moved very little.
Seriously people, drop the TV addiction. There’s absolutely no reason you need to pay $60+ a month for something that has almost no benefit for you and your family. Drop it, use OTA and supplement with free and/or less expensive options. You’ll have more time to yourself and you’ll pay a lot less. [/rant]
According to this article in Burnsville Patch, an ISD191 third-grade teacher is suing the school district for negligent property maintenance and “allowing a dangerous condition to exist” following a slip and fall on ice in the parking lot of Sioux Trail Elementary School in Burnsville on January 25, 2010. While she asks for $50,000+ she claims it is due to the injuries and emotional distress sustained following the fall:
As a result of the accident, Ivory suffered “severe and permanent injuries,” according to the lawsuit. She has also suffered emotional stress, “past and future pain and suffering” and past and future medical expenses, the suit says.
But, as the public photos on her Facebook account appear to show she’s made a pretty decent recovery as of August 2010.
With so many knowing that lawyers and the general public use Facebook, as well as other social media sites, as evidence in cases don’t you think that someone would want to ensure their photos are private? What about those who don’t even have any pending litigation? As a general user of social media (or the Internet in general) do you share photos, actions, etc with the rest of the world? If so, do you take steps to ensure that a limited number of people are able to view them? Whatever you have to say about this one vote on the sidebar and then comment on below. After you do both of those things feel free to check out our expired polls in the archive or read through the previous posts about polls here.
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October 9th, 2011 at 8:04 am
I voted ‘Private’ but have my settings set to Friends only. There is no vote option for that.
October 9th, 2011 at 8:49 am
I lock everything down that I can, but also I try very hard not to post anything, anywhere, that I wouldn’t want the whole world to see, either today or twenty years from now. I operate under the assumption that anyone could find anything about me that is online, and that there’s no separation between online and offline, work life and private life, or anything like that.
October 9th, 2011 at 9:14 am
i voted public. someone will find out sooner or later if they really want to. tim is correct. don’t post anything that you don’t want the whole world to read/see. once any information is on the electronic highway, it’s fair game.
bb
October 9th, 2011 at 9:17 am
I’m with Tim. I try to stay aware of the fact that potential employers could view my Facebook page, and attempt to stay apolitical and as non-controversial as possible. Not that I think that Facebook where you can harvest imaginary plants is also a great forum for a political debate, but I think it’s very important that people recognize that if they have an account on any social network site, your privacy is greatly reduced.
October 9th, 2011 at 10:39 am
Since the internet really didn’t become a big thing until I was long past puberty and my brain reached maturity, I’m more public than private. Mostly because I have a good feel for how to leverage a public persona and what and when things should stay private. That said I don’t encrypt my e-mail or my computers hard drive so I’m not all that private either.
If all of what is available today, was available when I was a youth, I could see my poor quality decision making at that point leading me into making public information that could have a negative affect on employment. But of course, if it would have still been my parents of the time, well then I wouldn’t have had as much risk as today as they sure as heck wouldn’t have been paying for me to have a camera phone and data plan.
I wonder if it is a bad idea to have a spreadsheet in google docs that is named “private financial data and passwords”? ;-)
October 9th, 2011 at 10:53 am
I don’t use facebook, but I do post to twitter using my real life name even though I know that it is offensive to anyone who likes Michele Bachmann.
Other than that, I am quite private and very little could be figured out about me personally using the internet.
October 9th, 2011 at 1:06 pm
I wish there was another option on the poll for “mixed”. There are certain things I choose not to share on Twitter, G Plus, Facebook, Flickr, etc. Luckily it is easy to alter the privacy level of individual posts/pictures.
I happened to be on the Internet all through my teenage years, however there weren’t really any social networking tools. I’m kind of glad it wasn’t available, who knows what immature/classless stuff I would’ve posted. Hopefully I can parent my kids to make the right decisions when it comes to that stuff in the future.
I keep hearing stories about teens getting caught with bad behaviors because they post all of their pictures as public. How long will those be cached on all the search engines of the world? How accessible will it be if future employers are doing background checks? That’s kind of scary stuff to think about.
October 9th, 2011 at 4:05 pm
Facebook is internal, and isn’t indexed by the google or bing. But certainly stuff is kept. I think the biggest thing in my youth was Usenet and/or AOL. A lot of stuff will be around a long time. i.e. the internet archive/wayback machine.
http://www.archive.org/
October 9th, 2011 at 4:23 pm
I find it interesting that people who answered “public” are posting comments here under pseudonyms.
I answered private, though I do have a public blog and Twitter account. My Facebook account is private and knowing how much is available to the public even with a private Facebook account, I’ve questioned whether I should have one. I’ve also more or less quit posting pictures to Facebook. The more accurate answer would be “mixed” since I’m certainly not paranoid about what’s out there about me.
As far as coworkers go, I don’t care about them knowing my politics, beliefs, etc. I figure if a place is uptight enough to make it an issue, I don’t want to work there. I’ve had numerous political discussions with my CEO, who’s on the opposite end of the spectrum from me. I think politics and even religion are less of an issue in the workplace than a lot of people make them out to be. As long as you aren’t campaigning or soliciting in the workplace, it doesn’t bother me. Talk about it all you want, even debate about it for all I care. One of my first interviews for a summer job actually began with the interviewer joking, “So, I see you’re the president of the College Republicans. I have to tell you, that’s a problem here.” I got the job, I’m still friends with that former boss, and we still occasionally banter about politics.
October 9th, 2011 at 4:25 pm
Mikeh, unfortunately, Facebook is indexed by Google to a certain degree. For example, you may have all of your settings set to “private,” but if you “like” any comment or post on a Facebook page that’s public, or even comment on a post that’s on a public Facebook wall, it gets indexed.
October 9th, 2011 at 4:57 pm
I made a minor edit to Mikeh’s comment #8 to remove the BBCode. Just post the URL, WordPress will make it clickable.
October 10th, 2011 at 10:09 am
Guilty.
Several of the “regulars” here have met me in person and have discovered that I am, in fact, a spectacularly uninteresting person offline. Much nicer than this MSPD online character I hope. Certainly less controversial. Nowhere near as articulate (that’s why I write vs. speaking for a living). Definitely not funny at all in real life.
My Facebook is set to a moderately private setting, but things like photos, status updates, etc. are set to “friends of friends” which invites just about anyone from my work, home, neighborhood, etc. in to see the spectacularly uninteresting things I do/say on a day-to-day basis.
I’m OK with having my “deep dark secrets” out there for all to see because there really aren’t any. There’s not much about me that I feel like I need to hide. Even my internet porn habits are just mainstream stuff. I eat strange foods sometimes. I’m not even embarrassed about my friendship with Bill…I really don’t mind the odd, sideways glances people give me when the see me actually out in public with him. I don’t commit crimes, don’t do drugs, and I’m not sleeping around. It took me 17 years to graduate college. What else would I be worried about people learning about me on Facebook or Twitter?
October 10th, 2011 at 1:15 pm
No one is looking at YOU sideways. They’re looking at me wondering why I’m on a date with a dude who looks like a mutant oaf.
October 10th, 2011 at 1:26 pm
Oaf, yes. Mutant? Now that’s just rude.
October 10th, 2011 at 1:32 pm
And here I thought I was being nice!
October 10th, 2011 at 9:25 pm
I don’t do much social media sharing other than Facebook, and for that I use the friends of friends setting. Since I have very few friends, and they have even less, I think my photos are pretty safe from the public at large.
October 11th, 2011 at 7:45 am
I’m pretty split. I have some things open on Facebook, however, there are people that I don’t want seeing parts of my life, and there are reasons for it. Mainly people from the past, and a few current people that really cannot be trusted farther than I can throw them.
Otherwise, I’m pretty open on Social Media. I’m not that interesting; I go to steam shows, edit video, and spend time outdoors..
If people want to know something, they’ll find a way to get it, but some parts, I won’t make too easy..
October 11th, 2011 at 8:21 am
I have no idea what a “steam show” is, but it sounds quite naughty.
October 11th, 2011 at 8:48 am
There really is two layers of privacy discussed here. Privacy from other citizens, and privacy from the man. “The man” being any part of the legal system, from police investigating criminal activity to lawyers investigating for civil damages. In the case of “The Man”, nothing that you place in the internet is beyond their reach. Regardless of who your facebook friends are, or who are in your Google+ circles, they will have access to everything. Every e-mail, every tweet, every post.
October 11th, 2011 at 10:23 am
To elaborate what Mikeh is saying: ISPs basically give backdoors to the NSA and other government agencies to sniff all of the network traffic running through their backbones. Thank you Patriot Act.
October 12th, 2011 at 8:08 am
@lefty – Steam Show: it’s a show/event of antique tractors, steam engines, pioneer living etc. Search Google or YouTube for ‘Rollag’ and check it out.
October 12th, 2011 at 8:35 am
Oh.
Watching tractors is way different than my original assumption that you like to watch underwear models walking around in a room filled with steam. Boy, my mind really went the wrong direction there.
That said, I am not going to google “Steam Show” at work. I bet I would get more than tractors and steam engines.
October 12th, 2011 at 8:36 am
First 10 results are safe.
October 12th, 2011 at 8:39 am
Is you safe search on or off?
October 12th, 2011 at 8:43 am
I don’t use Safe Search at home and when I search for “tits” I get the expected result.
October 12th, 2011 at 9:33 am
Well, then it looks like we have stumbled onto the next big thing in internet sex sites. Steam show is gonna be the next Dirty Sanchez.
October 16th, 2011 at 7:02 am
[...] week’s poll asked about how you shared information on social networks. The majority responded that they keep it ‘private’ but there was some discussion about [...]