Bernaisesource

Maybe we should call it the mySpace effect – after teenagers who are posting most everything about themselves online with little regard to the adult consequences.  Now it seems adults are getting into the act.  With all this sharing going on, it makes me wonder how this social interaction will impact both our personal and professional lives.

From my perspective, it is amazing to discover how many bloggers feel comfortable throwing discretion and caution to the wind.  Nothing – births, marriages, medical procedures, divorces, cancer, and death – seems to be out of bounds.  I suppose that’s the power and the addiction of new media.  And the more we reveal, the more the outside world is drawn in. 

Of course, the urge to record and share is not new.  Cave paintings of communal hunts were all the rage some 40,000 years ago.  And find me a proud parent reluctant to “share” baby photos with anyone within eyeshot. 

What is new is the ability to so easily share intimate details in real time with complete strangers on a global scale.  Apparently, a close network of friends and family is not enough.  Increasingly, more of us want the world to know — and the world seems to make the time to read — about our most intimate details.  In a celebrity obsessed culture, where everyone can be famous on YouTube, we are our celebrities in our lives – call it, as author Neal Gabler did — Life the Movie.

Perhaps sharing the intensely personal is just a capitulation to a world where safeguards on privacy continue to erode – where online commerce sites require personal information, where identity theft is a real threat, where security cameras are everywhere and where private moments can be captured on cell phones and posted on YouTube without your knowledge or permission. 

Or maybe it just feels safer sitting in front of a keyboard removed from the gaze of one’s audience.  In any event, it is changing how we communicate and how we want the outside world to view us. 

But what does this mean for business communications?   Are employers ready to embrace this move toward greater openness, informality and community?  It is already happening.

From business casual dress codes to Instant Messaging, what we wear and how we speak reflects this new way of thinking.  Companies are permitting employees to blog and are even (as is the case of my company) showcasing employees’ personal blogs in an effort to share their collective voice with the outside world.

Beyond employees, companies are creating their own social networks where customers can share their personal experiences with each other and the company.  I believe the most successful ones will encourage open, honest discussions that may be critical of the company hosting the site.

The rules of engagement are far from clear, but formality and marketing speak are not the end game.  As personal blogs are demonstrating, the public wants candor.  Increasingly, companies will comply. 

To be truthful, I welcome the changes that new media brings even though discretion continues to be the highest form of valor for me. 

I just hope that we don’t substitute personal blogging for direct human interaction.    I also hope we base our editorial decisions on what is best for us, not our audience.   Sure the attention is nice, but the pursuit of page views and links on Technorati seems a little empty.  And as most celebrities can attest, fame can be fleeting – even in the blogosphere.

Let me get back to you.