Thursday, April 26, 2012

Chapter 4 - Communicating Online

You've Got Mail.

With so many options to choose from it makes sense that communicating online is as popular as it is. With email, instant messaging, chat rooms, discussion boards, blogs, and the social networking sites you are one click away from connecting with friends and family or people half way across the world. There are many advantages to this type of communication such as convenience and speed of delivery.


Unfortunately despite the frequency people use these types of communication, people often forget about the many dangers. It still shocks me when I see emails or instant messages that come through with personal information. Most people generally would not give out their social security number or bank pin number in the middle of a crowded room, but they seem more than happy to write it in a message that has the potential to end up in millions of people’s possession. Even if you take out the people who are actively looking to take the information through deceptive practices you still have the potential of accidentally sending this information to the wrong person. I have personally received several messages that were not intended for me. One specific example comes to mind when a sales manager mistakenly responded to all with sensitive payroll information that ended up going out to the whole company.


The morale of the story is while these tools can be extremely helpful both personally and professionally it is important to exercise some caution when using them. I thought this would be a great topic for a Wordle so below is what I came up with.

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