Our reputations on EBay remain on EBay, it's very hard to get that reputation to benefit you elsewhere on the net. Oh, but your real reputation, right, that one can be ruined within a matter of seconds. The articles "Are Online Reputations Portable" and NPRs "Startups help clean up online reputations" point out that a reputation given to us in the online world can't help us in other aspects of our lives but the mistakes we make can haunt us forever. That doesn't seem very fair...
Well, I guess in the words of my mother, life isn't fair. It's interesting that a reputation we work hard to maintain, like for a seller on EBay, won't get us fair else where but a mindless picture posted by a buddy can hurt our chances of gaining employment. And just think, we went to college to get a job and didn't realize we were hurting our chances on the weekend.
Quite honestly I would like to meet someone who has missed out on an opportunity because of what they had posted on the web. (What was up there in the first place and how do these people let that happen? Note to self, no more keg stands...Just kidding boss!) Now there are businesses that will help you heal your wounded reputation such as Reputation Finder. Although, what if your potential firm finds out about the online PR firm you hired, wow, that will look great too. Moral of the story: I don't know what Big Brother is doing but everyone else is checking you out on the net. Our generation shouldn't be worried about our credibility on the internet, rather, they should be worried about how our credibility in the real world can be impacted without us even knowing it.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
"My reputation grows with every failure" -George Bernard Shaw
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2 comments:
What you put on the web can definitely affect you.
I just heard on the radio this morning that a teacher at an area school is probably going to get fired due to her myspace page showing her dancing lewdly with blogs she wrote about her prescription drug addiction.
Now-a-days, every college student need to make sure they clean up not just their image in real life, but also their image on the web. Sad, but true.
I love your post. It's very real, and very down-to-earth. It's very characteristic of how I feel. A firm that helps you mend your ruined reputation. Sounds kind of hokey to me... like an easy way to make money. But you're right though, if someone wants to destroy you, all they need is a camera and/or a keyboard. Anyone can slander anyone online through an anonymous blog, and these things can be tough to track. Unless you have ip addresses and surveilance footage of the time/date the perp. made the infraction, anyone can bring you down with enough effort.
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