Been a while since I posted here ... I tend to blog a lot and then not blog at all, so I guess I'll be getting back into a routine of blogging a lot for a while.

Let me say something about blogging and social networking and how they reconcile with a workplace environment. First of all, anyone who's seen my piano website (www.bradleymetrock.com) has access to this blog, as I am pretty sure it's linked through there. Even if it isn't, this blog comes up in the first page of results if you Google me, so there is no doubt that there are people from work (and who knows where else) reading this.

We are in an interesting transitional period where you have older folks accessing the internet who a) don't understand the internet itself and b) don't understand the internet culture. The meshing of this older group and people like me who are younger and fluent in technology is 99% of the source of the perceived problem of employees having a "private" life out there on the internet.

The way it is now, somebody my age has a blog, or has a MySpace account, or has a personal website, and that is viewed as a liability at work. I've seen it numerous times and already at my current job I've seen online "stuff" (have to keep this vague) negatively affect multiple people.

For me, I don't say anything in this space, or elsewhere on the internet, that I wouldn't say in person. I'm just as honest here as I would be in person, and while I don't blog about people I don't like or that really suck to deal with, those people pretty much know who they are. No there's not really any secrets to be unearthed by reading this.

And that's the way this whole internet/blogging/social networking stuff needs to work. Honesty in person, and honesty online. No two-faced stuff, no talking behind somebody's back, none of that. If you say the same things online as you do out there in the "real world," you shouldn't have any problem. If you don't, you can bet the internet's going to come back and bite you.

Consequently, I don't like to see people my age avoid the internet and avoid creating their own "online footprint" simply out of fear. This temporary time of aging baby boomers casting aspersions on younger folks who use the internet to blog and to have a voice outside of work is something to be cognizant of ... but also something that will be over within the next 5-10 years.