Facebook

It is safe to say Facebook has gone from being a “social” platform to now a business abode. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

That would depend on how you use it. If strategizing to bring a brand out to the world then Facebook is a good investment.

On a personal level, there are already recurring issues of confidential information probably being used for marketing purposes resulting to annoying ads or other marketing campaigns.

It has been an exhaustive debate on how Facebook is becoming a nuisance to a lot. How it will evolve and fare in the future will be something to watch about… though users are now being more vigilant in their profile settings for security purposes… somehow removing the freedom of being themselves without marketing nuisance.

Wow, social networking has indeed made a big mark on my life and to many others I bet.

Recently browsing through Youtube for blog topic inspiration, I stumbled upon random videos about being careful of what you post in the Internet.

Posting on net declares you provide your material to be in public domain. Indeed, there are services available online to provide necessary copyright but these can be quite senseless if everyone still has access to data that could be shared EVERYWHERE in cyberspace.

Focusing on the topic at hand, Facebook has indeed dominated lives of many individuals. Much as we enjoy personalizing our profile pages, we must be reminded that too much “personalization” could cost us a lot, including our lives and career.

Here are some items to remember when posting on Facebook or anywhere in the Internet.

1. Inappropriate Pictures
Avoid inappropriate pictures which may affect your career or personal relationship with anybody. It doesn’t need to be said, if prospective employers or clients see an image of you chugging a bottle or wearing sleazy outfits to a bar night, it wouldn’t account any points for you to be hired.

2. Current Job Complaints
Ah, I’m sure everyone has done this one time or another. I could be a note of how you hate the office or a simple status on how your boss destroyed your day. Either way, if your employer or a fellow employee sees this it will not give a good impression.

I admit I have done this a few times but I made sure I never mention any names within it. I may rant, be frustrated or angry but I make it a point not to mention games for confidentiality purposes. Besides, if the source of my angst are pretty much aware that the update was directed to them, they couldn’t complain about it via comment or else the whole world would know it was them I was referring too. LOL. I am not saying to follow my practice nor would I declare it to be a safe way to release your feelings. That is just how I did facebook status’.

3. Posting Conflicting Information to Your Resume
In your resume you posted that your school is Harvard but your Facebook profiles states you went to UCLA. You will likely be immediately cut from interview list. Any form of dishonesty, no matter how harmless it is, will make you look like a liar.

4. Not Understanding Your Security Settings
Default mode of Facebook is to be on full-stalker mode. Meaning, anyone and everyone can view you, add you up, post on your wall, view your images, etc. And I do mean ANYONE. Social networking IS a public thing but it does not mean we want our lives to be stalked by everyone on the planet.

It is possible to customize lists of friends and decide what each list can and cannot see. Unfortunately, many people do not even discover or explore these settings. If you are to use Facebook professionally, make sure to take time going through privacy options.

Basically, make sure your profile is viewed ONLY by the people you trust.

6. Losing by Association
It’s true you cannot control what post on your profile. If a potential client or employer sees a tagged picture of you falling down drunk from a party, it would definitely reflect poorly on you. Thus, it is necessary to constantly check your profile for any images or information that could reflect poorly on you. This may also include information you won’t want your loved ones to see.

Facebook can either HIRE or FIRE you.
The best way to protect your reputation is to have two Facebook accounts. One for personal information and the other for professional purposes. This way you would be able to separate necessary friends and contacts and avoid unnecessary wrong impressions.

“buti n lng am hir in dubai! maybe so many sinners bak der! so yeah deserving wat hapend (sic),” the comment read.

I saw red. It was un-patriotic, bitchy, too darned insensitive and a perfect plain “ready-to-kill” moment. The country just recently underwent a tragedy with Ondoy. The Filipinos haven’t got their bearings together when such comment arose and well… who are we to not show this woman the wrath of Filipinos when aroused in anger.

I wasn’t surprised by the list of comments I saw afterwards regarding the statement. Heck, I snickered to myself thinking, “This woman is getting what she deserves for mocking her fellowmen”. Later on, I saw Facebook Groups having a heated debate whether Jacque Bermejo was indeed the one who made that comment.

I stepped back and realized, yea, we didn’t even knew if it was indeed her, who made that comment. With Facebook as the current No. 1 social networking tool, it is prone to hackers for its “open” developer access to render application integrations. There is a possibility that her account is hacked or someone is using her identity.

I felt ashamed thinking the way I did. I thought back to the feelings I had and yes, I indeed felt very angry. I was ready to kill anyone who was demeaning the Filipinos upon a crisis. I was angered by the comment and I needed a target to vent the anger upon. It just so happened that a name and a face was easily provided, thus the onslaught of comments against her.

I’m relieved to know that she just made an “Official Statement” defending herself against the issue and asking aid to appropriate institutions to clear her name.

‘Official statement’

A Facebook user posted Bermejo’s alleged official statement dated September 29, 2009 in the hopes of clearing her name.

She said that an unidentified source created the accounts using her name, her personal details, and pictures.

“Because of these incidents, I reported such abuses and sent my credentials to the administrators of such sites, particularly Facebook. I have been abused and am still being abused online in social networking websites such as Facebook, Friendster, Multiply etc,” Bermejo’s statement said.

Her friends called her up and informed her about the cruel “shoutout” on the Facebook account and the numerous comments from other users.

“These malicious statement(s) which are posted under account names Jacque or Jackie are not of my doing. It is unfortunate that such statements were maliciously attributed to me and I do sympathize and understand the adverse and somehow verbally violent reaction that has been elicited by such insensitive statements or posts. Rest assured, I have taken every legal step that can be done in this regard,” the statement added

“I am devastated and shocked at the extent my character, my personal information and private space have been violated,” she stated.

I am sincerely asking for an apology for the way I thought. I just hope that this Official Statement is real and will soon be justified once the real person behind the “comment” is captured and light will be brought upon the issue.

Being a web designer, I had been in the situation where every designer hates to be in.

A blank mind.

A new project is coming up and I am assigned to come up with a mockup design for a project with minimal information provided by Client and an output is needed ASAP because Client is running against a strict deadline to catch up with a campaign. This happens after debugging multiple sites, quickly sliced another critical project, answered multiple email from Client inquiries and gulped two cups of coffee. Oh yea, this happened about two hours before the end of my shift. It would have been easy if my brain was still raring to go but it had reached its day limit and was nearing hitting its bedroom shack and catch some zees.

still, I had to come up with a mockup or two but all I could so was stare at a blank Photoshop canvas. I needed something to start up my brain and a cup of coffee was out of the question because I didn’t want to end up having a hard time falling asleep that night.

Regardless of how many times you drank coffee, or even if you had complete hours of sleep, if your mind grows tired, it needs a breather to start up again. So what can you do to give your brain a fresh start?

I could suggest a few things as these are based from my experience.

1) First and foremost, you have to accept that you may not be able to go home at your usual time and overtime may be necessary. Getting all hyped up about getting home and deciding to hurriedly finish tasks will cause your brain to become more active, gain more stress which may lead to mistakes and end up in frustration.

2) Drink water. Never underestimate the importance of H20. Even if a web designer just sits all day in front of a computer, his brain works overtime and any body or organ functinality needs H20 to sustain its progress throughout the day.

3) Take a few minutes breather. Get up, walk around the office and stretch. Make those leg muscles ease off tension from sitting too long. Swing your arms to loose tension from your shoulders. Stretch. Relax.

4) You could do what I do most of the time. I turn off the monitor, sit back and close my eyes for a few minutes. Sometimes I put on my headphones and play some classical piano piece (e.g. Beethoven, Bach, Rachmaminov, etc.). If you don’t dig classical music, just go and play your favorite music that helps you loosen up. Of course, do this only in a few minutes. You might end up going on a sound trip and not get anything done.

5) One of my breather moments is when I visit sites like Cuteoverload.com. Hey, everything there is cute and relaxes me. Tell me who doesn’t get relaxed by these cute pictures. (hehe!) Sometimes I visit my Facebook or Friendster profiles to check out updates. Sometimes, checking on some non-work related websites help in taking a breather before undertaking a new project. But this should be taken with precaution because you might end up taking too much time updating your profile or visiting a site and not getting anything done for the project. Also, you have to be sure that your management allows for viewing such sites or you might end up in trouble. I’m just lucky our office allows these but at a limit.

Do you know any other breather methods to help your brain function for a project? Please don’t hesitate to comment and share! ^______^