Simple thought: Don't just follow where others take you

I had several meetings yesterday and one group of people picked up on this week's blog posts from me:

• Monday we wrote about locational privacy with apps like Foursquare
• Tuesday we commented on the use of cell phone data to plot a person's movements on a map

It's fair to say that reactions were mixed:

• One point of view couldn't really see the problem, and decided it's all going to happen anyway so why kick up a fuss? There's nothing you can do...
• Others took the extreme (often called 'Luddite') view: I'll have nothing to do with this technology then...
• If they were at the extremes, the bulk of the group were somewhere in the middle, but expressing astonishment at what the technology is bringing about, seemingly with no forethought. 

Here's the simple thought: don't be a Luddite; but don't fall into the other two camps, either! Rather, take responsibility, take control, for what you do and how you do it. Don't just broadcast information, whether it's your personal photos, relationship details or location or whatever. Instead, think first about how this might come across; how it might be used for you, or against you; now, or in the future.

They once tried to teach me 'Transactional Analysis.' The only thing I really took away was the notion that the healthiest position is what the Theory calls 'Adult:' and I understood that to mean taking responsibility. 

So, take responsibility for your personal 'brand.' Start by running your own name, in quotes, through a search engine like Google.

Do you like the results? What are you going to do about it?

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