I just finished reading an interesting post about Twitter and other social media ethics. And I am wondering, does it all imply that people with certain positions just cannot use them at all? The journalist from major paper closed his account on Twitter and is not posting anymore, because his private opinions are not considered private just because of who he is. I also recently heard about a scientist, who closed his Facebook account, because he was promoted to faculty position, and was worried that his students will see his profile.
And I see two issues here.
One is the ethics of posting, what you can and what you cannot post because of your job or position, and I agree that you have to be careful. At the same time, I think Twitter and other social media just spread the work quicker than regular word-of-mouth type of gossip, which just puts people in trouble more often that before we used Internet to spread it. So there is no new ethics coming, is still the same old ethics, just more people and quicker will discover who breaks the ethics.
The other problem is the fact, that people in certain positions might be cut off using the social media and if not the benefits, then certainly fun of it. And I do not find it particularly fair. High school and even collage students will be free to use the new ways of communications, and older people will be left out. Unless something changes, but I am not sure how it could to solve the problem.
What are your thoughts on it?