Silence, Patience and Privacy - Where Have You Gone?

In today's web world, there's no need to be silent and little tolerance for delay. Twitter asks "what are you doing" and Facebook asks "what's on your mind". I can use third-party apps to aggregate those and, in one post, update my Twitter feed, Facebook status and my blog. Anyone can have a voice, and it seems that more of us are trying to do just that. We can become the center of our own world and send/receive information immediately. It's one of the most powerful aspects of this "Web 2.0" world in which we live. As some are learning, it isn't without its perils.

Have you heard of Michael Beasley? He's a talented, young NBA player who, like many of his peers, created a Twitter feed for his fans. In August, he created quite a stir with a few of his updates. One said "feelin’ like it’s not worth livin!!!!!!! I’m done". He posted a Twitpic showing off a new tattoo that received acclaim for another reason.

Alice Hoffman is an author that used her Twitter feed to comment on a book reviewer's reaction to her novel. She later had to apologize for her comments.

Tiger Woods is known for many things. Maybe he has a Twitter feed - I don't know. He's been criticized for not being vocal enough about social issues, so there's certainly a segment of the population that wants him to comment on matters outside of golf. He's also (in)famous for his immediate responses to a bad golf shot and has received criticism on that as well. I don't need a Twitter feed to know what he's thinking about an errant drive... the cameras and microphones catch it all. To my knowledge, cameras and microphones haven't followed me on a golf course. There are a few occasions where I'm certainly glad that's the case.

Long story short, there are times when we all need to be silent, need to be patient and need to have privacy. This era of constant communication encourages us to be vocal, do it now, record all of it with pictures or video and be ready to blog and comment about any of it. Here's a question for you... When you get a text message, do you feel a need to respond immediately? Most people I've talked to indicate that they do. Kids certainly do, and it's a 24/7 experience for them. Is that text really that important? Most of the time, no.

As we strive to teach digital citizenship and proper technology behavior, CIOs will be asked to lead by example. My advice, as it was with email several years ago, would be to think before you post a Twitter update, Facebook status update, blog post, picture or video. We can post at lightning speed and judgments on those posts are being made just as quickly.

Closing with a few quotes:

“Sometimes one creates a dynamic impression by saying something, and sometimes one creates as significant an impression by remaining silent.” – Dalai Lama

"Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt." attributed to Abraham Lincoln

"When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber." – Winston Churchill