Remember when you were in public school. Ever have an experience where someone wrote a note saying “Jimmy loves Jane”, forged a name and then tacked the note in the hall? People would giggle, but your friends knew if it was true or not … they knew you. “That’s just stupid, who would believe that!” they would say. Same thing if the note said “Jimmy hates Jane”.
This kind of thing still happens, but now it’s through text messaging and social media. And it’s not just little kids anymore. Yesterday at a meeting, a friend was fit to be tied. To her horror, someone went online, impersonated her and said nasty things about a competitor. People from all over then berated her unprofessionalism. But when you look at the post, people that knew her knew it wasn’t her. “Oh, that’s just silly, who would believe that”. Apparently in the new world of social media where every acquaintance is now a “friend” lots do.
If you think about it, that’s pretty scary. People can now post blogs, altered photos, altered everything. The only thing we are left with in this new wild, wild west of the Internet is our character and reputation to stand in our defense. But in a world of superficial social media where having lots of “friends” seems to be a badge of honour, this incident brings to light the evil possibilities and the need to be ever vigilant in choosing ones “friends” carefully and ensuring your character and reputation can hold up.