Social Networking Dilemmas

Wanda is a 4th grade teacher.  She has lived in several different cities where she had a very active social life.  She likes to keep in touch with her family and friends through Facebook.  The problem is that some of her friends live quite a crazy, party life-style.  If they post pictures of their raucous antics, her little, impressionable 4th grade kids will see them.  

It's a modern-day dilemma.  We all have segmented social circles.  Maybe a few of those people overlap with one another, but for the most part, they remain segmented.  I am not going out on a limb when I say that values differ among the people in those circles.  In fact, no two people, no matter how much they have in common, which share identical values.  So, I don't think that most people assume that if your "friend" is a vegan, Libertarian, Jew that you are too.  On the other hand, I think it is a problem if we present ourselves to have one set of values with one circle of friends, while another set of friends sees a completely different side of us.  This is the very definition of 'hypocritical' and, by doing so, we lack integrity.  

So, maybe you are like me, maybe you have a wide variety of friends who have vastly differing convictions on issues, maybe they even clash with one another.  I have decided that I want to be transparent with all of them about who I am and what I really like, dislike or believe.  Yes, sometimes it might be uncomfortable to post an article that I know some of them will call rubbish.  Hopefully, though, it can start an interesting conversation that will help us understand one another better rather than alienate us.  

If you are interested in reading the presentation that got me thinking about this, click here!