Saturday, March 15, 2008

I Really Didn't Want My Age On The First Page!

I signed up for MySpace yesterday. Then, I deleted it. MySpace wanted to know why I was deleting my page. I don't know.....

Yall know I work for Big Brothers Big Sisters, right? I don't write about it much. There are confidentality issues and I got enough things to write about without mentioned BBBS very much. I work in Match Support - it's my job to make sure that the matches are going well and growing. I work in our PALS program. These Big Brothers/Big Sisters are all teens from the local high schools that go to eat lunch their a 4th or 5th grader every other week.

Is that too much information?

One of the things I'm asked to do for work is to review any MySpace pages that my matches have. They all have MySpace pages. This week was the first time one of the Bigs (teens) had told me that her Little (5th grader) had asked to be a friend on MySpace. So I truly had an obligation to see what was on Big Sister's page. I learned that I can review the page without having a page myself. Also I couldn't figure out how to make my page private. I was appalled that some guy named "Tom" wanted to be my friend! Then I remembered that I had seen "Tom" interviewed on 60 Minutes - he began MySpace.

So, I deleted the one I set up.

Next year, we will review MySpace pages when Bigs are interviewed. At least I think we should - it could really show up something about them.

By the way, it was very easy to lie about my age. Anybody could put anything.....

5 comments:

Sarah said...

Tom is everyone's friend on MySpace. He's that way. He's nice. Tom and my husband are my only two MySpace friends. I'll be your MySpace friend, but I'll post a message every day telling everyone your real age! :-)

Jessica said...

I'll have to find Sarah now... haha! I warn my students all the time about their myspace and facebook accts. I have known people who haven't gotten jobs because of the pics on their page! If you decide to join the myspace world I'm there under Jessica Wheeler!

Steve said...

I do hiring and I do check those pages. If they have a myspace on private settings where only their friends can see (as any minor should), you can't see much. Also you can't see pictures or videos they have posted if you are not their friend.

Facebook, you can't see profile without being a friend.

I started doing this after I saw some of my current staff's sites. It might have saved me some work if I had checked before.

We also check the foster kids we serve to make sure their sights are appropriate.

We have also had to caution Foster Parents about sharing confidential info on their pages. You might need to talk to your PALS and BBBSs about that.

Roxanne said...

Ach. . .you're just a babe in arms. So glad I got to meet you and see your youthful face for real. :)

soul and culture said...

You do know you could choose to just show your birthday day and month, right? Or to even NOT show your birthday at all...there's a little drop-down box underneath the date with choices.