Lately I’ve been seeing around the big media websites articles with this theme. A sensational title like the above plus a filling helping of horror stories in the body about some poor individual who lost out on that great career because of  that compromising photo and statement placed online.  The moral is always the same Myspace/Face book/Twitter/whatever social website your using is going to ruin you professionally and leave you pumping gas for a living.  Sure some caution needs to be taken with your online self and if your in consideration for a position with the Red Cross perhaps its best to not to post about how your a vampire and can’t wait to get your hands on all that free blood.  These articles though, I feel are going to an extreme bordering on an almost sort of censorship, they want you to be so afraid of posting any sort of humanizing details that we all revert to just blind consumers again.  The real power of social media and the internet in general is the low cost entree into being able to speak your mind about the important issues of the day.  Those who follow me online know I’m very opinionated and post things that they might not agree with and some stuff they would be terrified to post in fear of a potential employer or client find it and be offended.  Sure I’m concerned about such things but I also feel I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t say what was on my mind.  Advice for how to handle oneself online is something I find all these articles to be lacking so I will share the rule that I find works pretty much everywhere in life, Understand just what exactly TMI really means. A little bit of responsibility is in order when you post online, When you show photos of you and the neighbor’s dog doing keg stands every Friday night a company might not find you to be a reliable professional but if you have photos of you at a political rally high fiveing G.W.B they’re going to over look that.