Reticence in the digital age

I hear a lot in the media about the lack and/or loss of privacy in this age of social networking. To be sure, more and more people seem unable to do anything without telling everybody they know and complete strangers about it. I was occasionally distracted at the So You Think You Can Dance show by the woman texting beside me.

However, I suspect there may be more than a few people who have had a reaction I've had to all this information overload, at least in terms of what I share about my career and what I'm working on. I'm much more reticent now about that sort of thing now than in the past because you just never know where that information might wind up.

Of course, there's always been a certain amount of risk if you shared information with others, but whereas before it might get passed from one person to another over a long period of time, now it can be emailed, posted and tweeted.

Frankly, that kinda gives me the heebie-jeebies. Not that I think folks are that terribly interested in what I'm up to, but still, better safe than sorry.

So while social networking has made me more accessible and approachable on a personal level, on a professional one, it's made me play my cards much closer to my vest.