Monday, August 12, 2013

Our Quandary Between Public and Private


Adam Music posted these notes on Google+:
Here you go, +Scott Kleinberg and +Ron Villejo ... this time it's a matter of news organizations and reporters becoming the story this time via blogging.
He was referring to Reporter [Shea Allen] Fired for Posting Candid ‘Confessions’ On Her Personal Blog.  He must've seen a previous post by Kleinberg about a social media faux pas, which I commented on and wrote about as well - At Issue:  "Likes," Prayers and Tragedy. 

Kleinberg fired off his response quickly:
You know, some people are just dumb.
This one I don't care much about: "I've gone bra-less during a live broadcast and no one was the wiser."
This one I do: "My best sources are the ones who secretly have a crush on me."
And this one: "I'm frightened of old people and I refuse to do stories involving them or the places they reside."
Those things have nothing to do with expression, they have to do with admitting things that are unethical for the sake of being able to because of freedom of speech. 
You know what? I'm happy to get up close and personal with you, here and on my website. I am happy to share that I am trying to lose 20 pounds because it makes me feel healthier when I walk. And I'm happy to tell you that I really don't care for vanilla yogurt, but I'm a big fan of Harvest Peach. 
There's nothing wrong with those things. But when you post something that basically is the equivalent of a little child standing in front of her employer with her fingers in her ears yelling "na-na-na-na-na," what do you expect? 
This person gets no freedom of speech points, but she does get 20,000 stupidity points. And now her 15 minutes of fame will include something that will make her public enemy No. 1 when it comes to being hired. 
That's my take. What's yours? Great post, +Adam Music.
I weighed in,

On the one hand, this lady may just be immature and guileless (i.e., childish, as you noted +Scott Kleinberg). On the other hand, she may be quite a troubled lady who has a few things to sort out for herself. For instance, "I don’t fight for things because they serve me, I fight for them because they are right" flies in the face of stealing mail, feigning attention, and manipulating her body.

Then, again, on the third hand, this kind of confessional probably makes for great tell-it-like-it-is, Jerry-Springer blogging! Just not for ethical, professional reporting.

Many thanks for posting +Adam Music!


Our quandary between public and private
While government officials, legal authorities, and major tech CEOs duke out issues on privacy inside a high stakes ring, there is a veritable human quandary about these very issues.  It's one thing for companies to track our stuff online with illegally-inserted cookies.  It's another thing altogether for any one of us to put that stuff out there among millions and millions of  eyes!  

So we ourselves haven't just blurred that line between public and private, but also taunted it in some cases while blowing right past it.  

To wit, Jason Levy offered up thoughtful notes on the post as well:
In general, this is a very difficult line to draw, as being a public personality, whether you like it or not, your personal confessions affect the public perception of your employer - the assumed assumption in the eyes of the public is that your employer has chosen to employ you despite their prior knowledge of your confessions. Whether the public do assume that, or whether the public's assumption is in the mind of the employer is open to debate. I think the truth is that there are probably a number of people who can't handle the concept that a person can have a public and a private life that are separate, and who expect anyone in the public eye to be perfect when there is no such thing as a perfect person (perfect by whose definition, anyway?). 
The line gets blurred by blogs, which can make public certain aspects of a person's life that would traditionally remain private. No doubt over time more and more people will develop and understand the advanced concept that people can have more than one side to them. As a #therapist, one of my tasks is to help clients accept that it is ok to have multiple facets to their personality. It's ok to have parts which are analytical and logical, and other parts which are emotional and intuitive. The assumption that we should be 100% consistent all of the time is incorrect, as the brain has two pathways: one, the neural net, which comes up with an immediate intuitive answer; the other, deductive reasoning which works through each step and often comes up with a different answer. Some people need to trust their "gut" more, while some people need to learn to consider the consequences before acting! +Adam Music 
Below is Allen's tweet.  Tell the whole story, that she did apparently.  Which was telling in and of itself, because she evidently missed the professional import of the story.  Or maybe she just didn't care for it.  


Then again, as I suggested in my note to Music's post, Allen must've grasped at some level the social value of her personal revelations.


Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD

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