Educational Origami

This image has been digg’ed for the last couple of days. It conveys a very salient message.

The background to the facebook post is a romantic liaison between two people. A matter that should be kept from the public domain. A matter only between the 2 people involved.

But a lack of fundamental understanding has led to this embarrassing point. Tracey has posted inadvertently her exploits to a wide and very public audience and concequently she is the subject of much humour and ridicule.

The privacy setting on facebook are weak at the best of times and even if she had set her Facebook as private, she would still have revealed far more than she intended to her circle of friends. Instead, with a click of a button she potentially shared this with everyone.

Some things are best said in person or using a media that is not easily recorded and replayed. This, I suspect, is one of them. As we have seen from email messages in a similar vein these two have an embarassing habit of becoming public discussion points.

The best point raised in this sorry incident is from here friend Donna “Seriously, did you think Facebook was private?“. If you consider anything you put in an email, webpage, tweet, post, comment or update to be in the public domain from the moment you send or post, you are probably correct.

Remember the adage – “Send in haste, repent at leisure“.

There is a thread rolling around that Tracey has been Hacked. Either way, whether this was accidental disclosure or deliberate act, there is a vital lesson to be learnt. A lesson that applies to each and everyone of us, digital natives, digital immigrants and digital emigrants too:

• Think before you post
• Does what I am saying have ramifications and repercussions
• Is it libellous, confidential, private or sensitive
• Who is my target audience? Who should see it and who could see it?
• What is the purpose of what I am sharing?
• Should I say it?
• Is this a considered & reasoned action or one in the heat of the moment?