Thought provoking as always.

The issue here, especially in light of today’s article in the Ottawa Citizen noting a ‘misstep’ by a Public Servant noting political affiliation on FB, is not training around SM but rather communication and reinforcement of values/ethics.

As George notes, verbal comments of this sort are made regularly and it’s simply because the ‘right’ people don’t hear them that they go unchecked or noticed.

Like other policy areas, we can’t simply ‘insert web here.’ Policies need to be reviewed to reflect ever-changing environments. Creating a separate policy for SM rather appropriately reflecting SM in existing policies will not help us avoid these pitfalls.

M.

I’m glad I wasn’t there to hear that “no training needed” comment. I would have spoken up big time.

Agreed – shooting yer mouth off, online or in person, is a bad idea.

The thing about offline though is that in many settings, your words literally disappear into thin air. Bringing the snark or spreading the BS with a few buddies? That’s as far as it goes. Or if it does happen to get repeated, attribution often gets stripped out. It’s “somebody said this the other day…”

Online the opposite tends to happen — your words tend to be linked to or copied, especially if they are inflammatory or stupid. It’s that attributed reach that online facilitates — this ability for your words or actions to spread far and wide, fast (remember Cisco Fatty?) — that for me the key difference.

Last I checked, face-to-face conversation has real-world consequences too. My wrist has been slapped far more often for what I’ve said out loud than for what I’ve written online.

The keyboard works better as a brain-filter for me than my lips do. But I’m the exception, not the rule.

The real bottom line, though – if you say something (on paper, online, or out loud), be willing to back it up and put your name to it. Don’t say anything you wouldn’t want your mother to hear or read. The same rules apply regardless of the media that conveys the message.