Freedom in Blogging

I have the right to say what I want. The U.S. gives us rights and if we choose to exercise those rights we have to be prepared to except responsibility for our actions.

The web is a powerful tool that must be respected. Blogging, essentially makes you editor-in-chief of a world wide publication. That's alot of responsibility to hand over to any joe shmoe with a phone line, and a Dell, but that's what it is.

These people that got fired for blogging were, most likely, not the model employees in the first place. It's hard for me to imagine a guy (for instance) getting to work early, excelling at his assignments and generally loving his job, being so careless as to divulge sensitive information to millions of strangers. I can't say that I fully understand all circumstances surrounding these issues but I'm sure blogging about work wasn't any of these peoples' sole reason for being fired.

Being a novice blogger myself I've learned a few things that I follow when writing something that everyone can read. One, you don't have to blog about it. You most likely get nothing for what you write in your blog. Why, then, would you include any questionable information at all? Secondly, be prepared to talk about what you wrote, at such engagements such as family get-togethers, business meetings and so on. It will happen eventually.

Exercising your rights without imposing on others' rights, and excepting responsibility for your actions, is not only part of being a good employee but also a good person, a good citizen, and an adult. These lessons are not inherent and must be learned which is why we educate ourselves on the subjuct. Our Business Communications class tells us over and over to consider our audience, and if your audience is the world . . . that's quite a consideration.