Careful about what you blog

Over the summer, I posted an entry Be careful about your web presence where I described how as individuals who are looking for employment in the academy after graduation that we needed to be careful about what our web presence said about us. I specifically mentioned blogging and what might appear if someone were to Google you. This has become even more true for me this past week and I would extend this caution to not nly doctoral or graduate students, but everyone.

This semester I am teaching or co-teaching courses in two different departments. In working with one of the other teaching assistants, just checking things out and really just wasting time, we came across the blog of one of his own students.

Talk about irony the worst teachers and the most bs department i have to attend class through is the education college and the department of XXXXXXX, my XXcourse nameXX is an ass to put it nicely and my XXcourse nameXX teacher as looney as she is, is completely lost. Go FIGURE!! I am at my witts end.

So classes set, books in the process of being bought, and tons of homework already it must be UGA in the fall! Seriously why do some teachers treat their class as though teaching 5 yearolds? I dont need a name tag or need to be adressed in a funny voice and patronizing tone to understand the syllabus or the material I am in college people really!

This was from a student who will be applying to get into the department that they specifically names in the first post and the teacher assistant referred to as an "ass" and also the one who used name tags for the first couple of weeks will be one of the individuals deciding whether or not this individual gets into the program at the end of this semester.

I don't know whether to feel sorry for the fact that this student obviously doesn't realize that some professors/instructors are technically savy enough to be able to find these things on the Internet or for the fact that in all likelihood that this young person has pretty much ruined any chance that they have for their chosen future career.

But then there is a part of me that doesn't feel sorry for them again, as I have to be honest and say that this is pretty dumb. I don't consider myslf to by much smarter than the average person (maybe a little more applied and driven), but I can honestly say that I wouldn't write something into a public sphere about someone or something that I would say directly to that individual. For the life of me I can't figure out why there are others who can't understand that if you're going to post your thoughts to the web, in a blog format or otherwise, to make sure that it is something that you wouldn't mind that individual seeing (as the chances are that they will be able to).

Anyway, just some thoughts for a Thursday afternoon...

Tags: graduate student, graduate students, graduate school, higher education, education