I am an American Idol contestant! There is nothing like sharing a name with a famous person to obscure the common person's identity. In my search I could not find a single link in the first 10 pages that relate to me. Even Pipl had issues and could only find my myspace page, which has been set to private for a very long time. I set both my Myspace and Facebook profiles to as extreme privacy as possible. While my prospects on becoming a teacher were a factor in this decision it was not my primary reason.
The link to my Myspace page did betray my alias. This is a very uncommon alias, 6 random letters I used when making my first email account when yahoo mail went free a long time ago. The first page of a search on google links to my personal site, several of my developer sites, as well as accounts I have on other websites. It is a long standing identity. My personal blog dates back to 2003, and my alias goes even further. There is content and associations that I do not mind being public but I do not want parents or students to see. I would much rather delete my Myspace profile than to plow through all the possible places my alias turns up.
It is a sad reality that teachers are held to such standards. If United States Senators can do worse and keep their jobs why can't teachers? Teaching is a profession where everyone is your supervisor and anyone can get you fired. Not just in the work place but outside and in the home.
One important factor that many people do not realize is that freedom of speech is not freedom from judgment. Yet the judgment should not result in loss of employment unless the statement is dangerous to students or school. Danger is a subjective view though.
What baffles me is that so many people do not realize that the Internet is not private. Why would someone post a profile decorated with blood and cuts and not realize that the whole world can see it. It is an exercise I would love to do with students some time where I find out as much about them from their own social networking sites before the first day of class.
Protecting myself will be a two pronged approach. Myspace profile will get the nuke. Everyone knows Facebook is the current king so I have no need for Myspace. The next step is to iterate through six years of blog posts and archiving the more incriminating personal posts. I also don't plan on doing any porn.
I recently deleted my myspace profile and am only using my Facebook profile. I did this mainly due to Myspace's association with a news organization that I will NOT support. But, I've also learned that, as far as professionalism goes, myspace has sort of a bias. By that I've heard of people not being hired just by being acquainted with myspace.
ReplyDeleteFree speech? Where are you!?!? As I stated in my blog post, teachers should be held to a higher standard, as are community leaders and public figures. But, there must be a line somewhere. I liked your discussion of other public figures (senators and the like) taking part in far more inappropriate activities and keeping their position. It seems a bit unfair...I guess it's all food for thought though. :)