Zabcikville, TX

Cover Story

How to manage your online persona and other technology tangles

By Rebecca Burlette

ROCKFORD WOMAN

Oct 03, 2008 @ 11:08 PM

Your career

Mixing personal, professional lives

Scenario: Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace are becoming more popular, but there's a line between revealing personal information and staying professional. This raises two important questions. What is the best way to turn down someone's friend request when you don't want them looking at your page, in particular a business rival or boss? And how much information should a professional disclose on such a site? What would Rockford Woman do?

Solution: "There are two choices. Not to have one, period, because of Google and other search engines. If you decide you need to have one, you've got to make it completely professional," says Cheryl Beese, dean of academics at Rockford Business College.

Employers now screen employment candidates by putting their names through search engines.

"If you're putting up your drunken weekend sprees or 'I hate my boss,' 'My company sucks' blogs, you have a problem, and it's going to affect you professionally in the work force."

If a boss or business rival sends you a friend request, ask yourself: "Is this going to be a positive experience?" Beese says. If you're uncomfortable with having someone see your profile page, "say, 'I don't feel comfortable with it.' Say, 'While we work together, you're my supervisor, and I don't know if it would be a good idea to cross that line,' " Beese says.

If you want to keep your page professional, Beese suggests not naming names, keeping it cryptic. In particular, don't put up provocative pictures of yourself. "I see you now as the Girls Gone Wild (woman)... not the top-notch performer," she says.

Your family

Trusting your child with a cell phone

Scenario: Your child wants a cell phone, but you're not sure if your child's ready or what boundaries you should set for its use. What would Rockford Woman do?

Solution: "An appropriate age to have a cell phone would be depending on their maturity level. I don't know if I would put a specific age to that. I don't think under age 10," says Mary Jo Owens, a school counselor at Roosevelt High School.

They're probably ready "when they can learn it is expensive to have a cell phone and that they have to have limits in terms of time is money," she says. "Do they show responsibility when other rules are enforced in the home?"

If you decide your child is ready, set limits, Owens suggests. "I would start with (allowing her to) use it for emergency purposes. If you're locked out of the house or you decided to go a friend's house and that wasn't the original plan and you need to contact your parents," Owens says. "I would sign a contract up front with the child. You can use it for emergencies, here are the emergencies. Sign the contract and then if they went against the rules, there would be the consequences of taking the phone away."

When your child gets older and proves she can be responsible with a cell phone, you can allow her to contact certain friends.

It's going to be different in different households, she says. "If you're a parent who works late hours and gives a child a cell phone to call and check up on them, you could leave the phone with an adult caregiver so that the child can access it if that's a possibility," Owens says.