DISQUS

Phil Ashman · 11 months ago

Love the quote!

I couldn't agree more with your perspective. At the post secondary level I'm dealing with many students who have had no guidance in managing their digital footprint. I even have some students doing vlogs that could make future employment exceptionally difficult.

Darren Draper · 11 months ago

Thanks for your comment, Phil.

You know, in thinking more about this, I'm not so sure the metaphor of
"having your pants down" should be applied to our stundents but I'm
glad to see that you understood clearly what I meant. :)

It's just that every little thing we put out there can be scrutinized
by anyone (even the ignorant) and sometimes those doing the assessing
can be both vicious and vocal.

Hang in there and keep fighting the good fight. I know I will.

Phil Ashman · 11 months ago

Sounds like you're talking from experience! It is true that we open ourselves up for scrutiny, but I think as professionals, most of us keep this in the back of our minds as we post. In addition, in making this conscious decision, we know we are going to have to thicken our skin.

No matter where you work there are always those individuals who make you want to give your head a shake (and maybe their's too..;)..), and when you open yourself up to the Internet you now have an increased probability of exposing your thoughts to a much greater number of those personalities globally. Nevertheless, I think the positive usually outweighs the negative, and if something drastic happens then you just have to roll with the punches and take appropriate measures in proportion to the level of discomfort the event evokes. Many people have been hurt online, but that is the risk we take for the freedom we have. I try to keep optimistic and hope I am lucky enough to have a high percentage of positive encounters and few if any extremely negative and possibly damaging ones. However it is easy to remain positive when you haven't been at the butt end of an online assault.

Bill Ferriter · 10 months ago

The only thing that I disagree with in the quote you site, Darren, is that it seems to suggest that a book----or online writing in any forum----is finished thinking.

I can't wait until we get to the point where we realize that there is no such thing as finished thinking. For me, any writing I do----whether it be the books and articles that I've churned out in the past year or the blog that I've been writing for a little over two years----is just a draft. It's where my thinking stands at one point in time.

And the way I see it, nothing readers/critics/clods say can do anything but help me because criticism and critique----even in its most underinformed and irresponsible form----forces me to either rethink my position or the way that I've chosen to articulate them through text.

Does this make any sense?

I know the quote is referring to the idea of making our thinking transparent----and with that, I wholeheartedly agree----so my comments here might just be a bit of semantic gymnastics. But I do believe that there are many traditional thinkers when it comes to publication who still believe that their published work is a final copy.

I never want people to believe that my thinking is final.

Rock on,
Bill

Phil Ashman · 10 months ago

I think I'm going to use that one! "My thinking is never final..." Couldn't agree more.

John · 10 months ago

Great Article. There are times in all our lives that we have to find ourselves again. Glad to see that book helped. Maybe i should try it out