We all have put our foot in our mouth at one time or another.
We all have had conversations in the past that we choose to not share. Our views have likely changed or evolved over the years.
People change.
So when my colleague Christine recently wrote about how to correct conversation flubs, it made me wonder….
How do we manage our ‘permanent’ conversations on the social web?
As we move into the ‘Era of Social Colonization’ as Jeremiah Owyang, Senior Analyst at Forrester wrote about this week, technologies like OpenID and Facebook Connect will break down barriers of social networks and allow individuals to integrate their social connections as part of their online experience.
So as our identities begin to follow us wherever we go on the social web, or whoever we meet, our activity and the conversations we have will be everywhere.
What does this mean when creating new connections?
About 2 months ago, one of my best friends started dating a new girl. (Thank god, it’s about time!)
Both of them work in tech and are quite active on the social web. Funny enough, they haven’t yet ‘friended’ each other on Facebook or anywhere else.
He’s concerned that once they ‘connect’ online, she’ll be able to see photos of his previous girlfriends, inappropriate status updates, and flirtatious wall posts from his past. Of course, he could set his privacy settings to block her from seeing any photos, status updates or wall posts – but that would be a little extreme.
What should he do?
Once someone on the social web creates a connection, they’re typically able to see everything of the other person’s past. But, this isn’t how real life works. When you meet someone new, you don’t know what they talked about years ago, they don’t show you their ex’s photos on your first date, and you don’t know what they did the day before you met.
Your relationship starts from today.
One thing I would like to see in privacy settings on the social web would be some sort of a ‘timeline’ option. You would be able to indicate from what point in time you want the other person to see your history. If you have kids, you may not want them to see your activity before you had them. If you started a new job, you may not want employees from that company to see you working at a coffee shop last year. Oh, and if you’re running for political office, you may not want others to see a college photo of you wearing a shirt that says, “I may be broke, but I’m not flat busted”.
This type of timeline feature would allow my friend to be ‘connected’ to his new girl, and start fresh – just like what happens in real life. Over time, they would get to know each other better and share things from their past.
Perhaps this timeline feature would be too complicated, but I can see many benefits of having something like this.
What do you think? What features would you like to see to manage your activity and conversations on the social web?
