On February 9 2011, an American teacher was suspended without pay for having vented about a few of her students on her blog. As far as she was concerned, the only people who would see it were a few of her friends, but somehow it got picked up by her employees, who needless to say were not very impressed.
This is just another incident in many of people who write about things on their blogs, Facebook pages and Twitter that gets them fired, or suspended or in some other trouble. One famous example is of Ellen Simonetti, a flight attendant who wrote a blog called “Queen of the Sky”, but once her employees discovered it, she was suspended and then fired. She subsequently wrote a bestselling book about her experience.
The internet has made it so much easier for the common man to air his views. In the past, the most you could hope for was to have a letter published in the newspaper. But now, no longer do you need to be a journalist, or politician, or celebrity, all you need is to have connection to the internet.
This is an aspect on the internet that really brings us all to the same level. You can be rich or poor, beautiful or hideous, online it really doesn’t matter (unless, I suppose, if you are one of those people who like to post big airbrushed pictures of yourself all over the place….). You can easily put your thoughts online and without any effort see them making a statement in the world.
The post of the teacher I mentioned above for example has sparked debate in America about the conditions of teacher’s jobs. There are even Facebook pages where you can be for or against her! And this about a woman who was only venting about her day to what she thought was a few close friends.
I wonder what the next thing will be that becomes famous by chance. If you knew something you said could be known worldwide, would it make you more careful? Or more daring?
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