Bank On Fitness followers, today we talk privacy. 007 sort of stuff. . . Facebook privacy, specifically. You ask, is there such a thing? Possibly, but it does take affirmative
action on your part. The focus of today’s
blog is on exercise of the brain . . . thinking about your professional
image, which really is important to your overall wellness.
Consider this: six
months ago you were looking awful, in fact, at your worst. (Of course, you hadn’t
started your Bank On Fitness training contract.) It was a night you had a huge Mexican dinner, a
pile of chips and salsa, and a few margaritas.
Your “friend” Sally snaps a photo of you in your margarita glory,
uploads it to her Facebook page, and tags you.
You do not require approval of this tag, and you allow the public (or
friends of friends) to see photos of you.
Sally allows the public to see her photos. So, an
unfortunate, bad angle, “looking a bit heavy and oh-not-so professional” photo
of you is open for world viewing because Sally has 725 other friends, some of
whom you know professionally. While you have only 50 Facebook friends, some of
your friends have hundreds of friends, and YOUR settings allow friends of
friends to see photos of you (yes, you were tagged). With this chain of settings, it just so happens that thousands get
to witness your first night out in months.
Not exactly what you wanted to see first thing in the morning, right?
Here’s the scoop, you can take actions to be a bit more
exclusive, to protect your image.
For example, Facebook allows you to approve photos in which you are tagged. Facebook
privacy settings also allow you to limit viewing of a photo you post to only you or to just your friends. Have a stalker? You can block that specific person. Click on the Facebook settings tool and
explore the options you have to be more private. Facebook does provide you with options; you
simply have to spend time ensuring your privacy settings reflect how private or
public you’d like to be. Visit this link
for more information and frequently asked questions on Facebook privacy: Facebook privacy.
About me and my privacy: I probably have more Facebook friends than I should -- people I'm really not friendly with, as a matter of fact. Some
of those friends are customers of my second business, who I feared that I would offend if I did
not accept their friend request. Who wants to lose business, right?
However, after thinking about Facebook privacy, I will at least give thought to
accepting new friends. Do I know them
well enough? What are their Facebook
privacy settings? Will they share
information that I don’t want the world to see?
While I do not share my contact information on Facebook, I allow a number of travel and
fitness apps to access my information.
Should I? I’m not sure (I did
delete a few because, no, I did not win that awesome travel vacation which some business used to entice me to
share my information.)
I am a professional. My image is important, and I want it to be professional; on the other hand, I use Facebook to stay in touch with friendships I’ve established over the past 25 years. I want to stay in touch with these people from my past, but I don't know their privacy philosophy. These are friends from all over the country, who without Facebook, I may lose touch. As I sit on my sofa, with a glass of heart-healthy red wine after a very long day of work, I commit to giving this more thought. And, yes, I may make changes over the course of the next few months. I promise this. Do you? Remember, fitness is about more than exercise. Your social network, your personal privacy, and your professional image IS part of your overall wellness. Bank on that!
I am a professional. My image is important, and I want it to be professional; on the other hand, I use Facebook to stay in touch with friendships I’ve established over the past 25 years. I want to stay in touch with these people from my past, but I don't know their privacy philosophy. These are friends from all over the country, who without Facebook, I may lose touch. As I sit on my sofa, with a glass of heart-healthy red wine after a very long day of work, I commit to giving this more thought. And, yes, I may make changes over the course of the next few months. I promise this. Do you? Remember, fitness is about more than exercise. Your social network, your personal privacy, and your professional image IS part of your overall wellness. Bank on that!
PS: You may not be able to control Sally. . .if
she allows everyone to see her photos, many will see the photo she uploaded of
you in all your unpleasantness. An important note: not all
is solved by Facebook privacy settings; rather full resolution may require a conversation
with Sally. Maybe, you do really need to re-think
who you friend on Facebook (or in life, for that matter). Another tidbit to ponder.
This post is great! Your story really helps keep the readers attention. When I first looked at it, it seemed like a lot to read. However, when I began reading it, it seemed to keep my attention very easily. It was interesting and I'm sure that any reader can relate to the situation described in your posting. You really explained the chain of viewers very well and I don't think a lot of people really understand that portion of Facebook. Overall I would give you a 29/30. I don't really have any suggestions on your posting itself, but I do see that your background image is tiled. You cant tell on the school computers, at least not the ones that I use. My computer at home has a larger monitor so you can see the tiling of your image. I would suggest changing that as I find it to seem slightly tacky and unprofessional. Also, when you change that, I would change your background color to a color that reflects the rest of your page.
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