We are all public people now
Thomas L. Friedman had an article in the Times Picayune this morning called “No closets for the skeletons on the internet.” He was writing about a book by Dov Seidman called “How.” Seidman’s thesis, according to Friedman is that in this transparent world “how” you live your life and “how” you conduct your business matters more than ever; because so many people can now see into what you do and tell so many other people about it on their own without any editor. To win now, he argues, you have to turn these new conditions to your advantage.
For young people, Seidman writes, this means understanding that your reputation in life is going to get set in stone so much earlier. More and more of what you say and do or write will end up as a digital fingerprint that never gets erased.
So how you build your life, how you trust, how you collaborate, how you lead and how you say you’re sorry – all start to matter more in this world of blogs and personal videos.
One thing I can say is that I have gotten a lot of flak about writing this blog. N wanted me to lie in the blog. His family wanted me to not write the truth. S ended up dating a psycho after we split up who started a blog co-opting our name and wrote horrible things about him and now when you Google him those bits and pieces come up – forever maligning him in cyberspace. An old friend quit talking to me because she hated seeing herself reflected in my blog.
I’ve spent my life as a public person – no privacy about when I fail, when I’m failed, as well as what brings me joy and who, what and how I live and love. I’m comfortable here – in this new world – some people aren’t. But this is the world we live in – we are in a fishbowl, whether I put you there, you put me there, how you and I behave is what will be recorded in perpetuity.