Responsible Posting

This is actually more of a request than a post. These thoughts are entirely my own. Like everybody else I watched in disbelief and horror at the events which unfolded last night in Paris, a city where I lived 24 years ago. I followed events on the BBC and on various social media sites.

My short "post" here, I guess, centres on the appropriate use of social media and all of its various available platforms. Dissemination of information has never been so quick and so effective. That should be seen as a blessing, particularly when events like last night are unfolding. I know that social media was a tremendous source of support for many people last night. It undoubtedly helped to save lives too.

My beef today (and prior - this has been building for a little while) is when I see people "using" LinkedIn for the purposes of making derogatory comments about certain faiths (you know what I mean here), and scaremongering people by publishing pictures, making misinformed comments and over generalizations in the aftermath of horrible events. Human nature, you say? Maybe. It doesn't need to be that way and human nature should never be an excuse for not making better informed decisions. It may not be the intention (I hope not) to scare anyone or to stir up hatred, but there any many people out there who, naively or otherwise, will get a great deal of comfort from reading the words of someone who thinks like they do. Words - spoken, printed, electronic or otherwise, cannot be undone once they have been shared. Believe me, I have the same concerns about the state of our world as everybody else.

I can't control anything, I know that, but let's try individually to be cognizant of what we are doing and saying, and at the same time try to keep LinkedIn for the professional purpose for which it was intended. I believe we don't need another Facebook.

Food for thought, I hope.