Social networking - should you let it all hang out?

I was having a real coffee, face to face, with a colleague yesterday and amongst the things we talked about was online social networking, and some of its potential dangers for posters who tell it as it is, drunken moments and all.

We're used to seeing the less flattering aspects of the social life of members of some of the celebrity B and C lists caught by the paparazzi and plastered over the tabloids. I guess either their social boundaries aren't particularly strong - or if your career is celebrity and noteriety - perhaps they don't mind what is shown as long as the column inches follow.

But do you really want a potential employer to google you and see your not-so-finest moments baring all? Your carefully crafted cv and letter could count for nothing in the face of a lurid account of your latest drunken Friday night exploits.

Research by Fons Trompenaars and Peter Woolliams (Business across Cultures, Capstone 2003) into cultural differences has a category they call specific versus diffuse - ie the degree of involvement in relationships. A specific relationship occurs between both partners interacting in public space, keeping what's private private. In a diffuse relationship, both partners share their public and private space

Different cultures see different things as being public and private. But the research shows that no matter what the original culture is, managers and leaders become more specific as they get older; and for younger people the boundaries between the public and private personna are more indistinct - ie diffuse.

This would tend to back up the popularity of “youth” social networking software and sites; but they do need to be careful because they need to remember that employers hang out in their space as well. For example, Facebook has channels seeking staff for Microsoft and Ernst and Young.

And once something is out in cyberspace, who knows where it will end up.

So caveat bloggers.