Internet – Friend or foe?

Over the past couple years Internet has consumed us entirely. We rely on it for information, for meeting people, for keeping in touch with those we already know, paying our bills and consuming products online. We store all of our information there. Everything we Google is on record and everything we post and write about ourselves is free to the internet world. This is great, but this is also scary.

Internet is a blurry line today between the big brother that watches over us helping and the big brother that watches us reporting. Our consumer patterns perhaps help define our interests and customize to our individual needs, but our individual needs are often misread and misinterpreted, perhaps to the gain of others, some bad guys. People are now getting fired from their jobs based on their internet affiliations and social network information published online, defamation in a way, private life in a way, but all of a sudden punishable. For example, an employee of an Ottawa grocery chain was fired for his posts and affiliation with a “just for fun” Facebook group, despite his outstanding record offline. This definitely affects athletes as well. College athletes are closely administered by their school’s communication departments for inappropriate Facebook material and email content. This recent event that had to do with the election is proof of that. When a UT Football player posted a racist status update about Obama to his facebook profile. He may have meant it as a joke, but it is in writing and that is enough to look bad for the University. He was consequently kicked off the team.

The web is worldwide as it is called, and this is true for other countries. Recently Internet postings have affected junior tennis players in England. When the British Lawn Tennis Foundation cut off its funding to their top two junior tennis players in England, Naomi Broady and David Rice. They were being supported by a professional organization that paid for their achievements but also invested in their ideal, and thus they were expected to conduct themselves accordingly. Clearly hacking into their Facebook/Bebe accounts and digging up photos of them partying, drinking and eating junk food was unacceptable.

The problem is clear; you have to be responsible for what you represent about yourself online. The issue is not clear, is this monitoring of private lives justified? People can’t get hired, or get fired for revealing messages that can be read in several ways without proof? The solution is not clear. The Internet remains both friend and foe.