No advice this month folks, just thoughts and opinions.
I just looked back at a blog I wrote a few months ago. It was about the advertising industry and how we need to give ourselves a reality check laced with humility.
I never published it.
It wasn’t that the article was cruel or obscene, but I hesitated because it was a strong opinion. And the reason I hesitated wasn’t that I was afraid of sharing a strong opinion. The fear was that, if my opinion changed (as it often does), that article would forever be logged on the Internet and I would be seen as a spiteful young writer who was antagonistic to all the reasons I signed up for this gig. And for the first time in a long time, I swallowed my words online.
Yesterday, Mac, one of our Marketing Advisors, was on our local newspaper website and saw banner ad urging him to register a domain name. It wouldn’t have been a big deal, but the ad mentioned a unique domain name he had searched for earlier in the week.
I get it. The Internet is tracking my every move. Marketers are subjecting privacy for sales. Is this wrong?
I think so.
I’ve never been one to hold my tongue. I’ve always been blatantly honest in my writing. Maybe it’s part of my what-you-see-is-what-you-get persona. I’d like to think that transparency is paramount to success. And I’m happy I can comfortably wear my heart on my sleeve, not in a “my dad doesn’t get me so I write poems and listen to Dashboard Confessional all day” sort of way, but in a “you’ll always know where I stand at this very moment” way.
The terror in all this, of course, is that our conversations today are all quotations tomorrow. We’re in a culture expected to speak without thinking in fairly public forums. Now that marketers (not Absolute, thank God) are diving into the online archives to pull “research”, there’s a greater chance that our moving target market has moved on.
I don’t feel the same way today as I did a year ago about almost anything. I’ve matured. I’ve had new experiences that have opened my eyes to new ways of thought. I’ve calmed down on some issues and become more polarized about others.
I’m fearful about what I’ve said online – not so much in these articles, but in personal emails or social media. I don’t want to self-censor on sites that are supposed to be about the real me. But that real me is only as real as the moment. The Internet is a time capsule with teeth that could come back to bite you.
Am I being totally paranoid? Tell me what you think. Post it here. If you don’t post it, I’ll completely understand.