He drew a very clear analogy that resonated with me. Way back in the late 19th century, visionary teachers and school administrators had to convince people of the need to make space and develop curriculum for shop class and home economics. Why? These two disciplines were deemed essential skills for tomorrow’s graduates.

Today, the same could be said for digital media citizenship.

This week, I participated in a panel discussion about the impact of social media on the high school experience. From my perspective as a parent, I do advocate the notion that parents should get in the game (click the link to see my presentation). One can assume that kids that grow up on the web get it. I checked my son’s Facebook settings and noting he was sharing everything with everyone, despite our family guidelines. He thought he had the settings nailed – not so. He has also needed to learn the lesson that you are what you post on the Internet.

Recent events have also highlighted just how tragic cyber-bullying has become. Over the past few weeks, I have noted people calling for more education or perhaps digital media citizenship courses for our tweens, teens and up and coming graduates. At this local meeting, parents were asking, “what is the high school doing to teach our kids”? Our local high school touches on social media across a handful of courses. I would imagine school board officials are taking a broader look at this now or soon. Perhaps we will see high school credit courses offering digital media citizenship? It would be a great way to mentor more up and coming leaders.

At the post-secondary level, we are seeing the career success agenda wrap social media/digital media citizenship into select classes and programs. From our viewpoint, it is something that needs to be weaved into entire programs from the day a student arrives. Check out David Johnson’s perspective on professionalism. As the Dean of the School of Business at Centennial College, it starts on day 1.

For those that believe what you send to friends or post to sections of a web site will stay private…don’t count on it. Fast moving software companies, faulty software components and copying and pasting are surefire causes of your data showing up in the wrong place.

A word of advice?

Assume anything you type, post or share will be viewed by anyone. Counting on Facebook or any software to be 100% secure, is simply a bad idea. Someone could easily copy and paste your post to another blog.

Follow the golden rule – don’t post content that you would NOT say to people on the street, at work or at school.  By following this rule, you will be able to sleep at night and NOT miss out on professional or personal opportunities downstream.

The founder of Facebook, has suggested we all lighten up and share with the world our entire digital life. It turns out, some of his pictures are private. Regardless of the trials and tribulations of such a high profile character, let’s explore social norms and the topic of openness and social media peer pressure. Here are some key points to consider and debate, if you start getting friend requests from potential employers, work colleagues or bosses:

1. Was your company recently valued at 8 Billion dollars? If so, then you really don’t care about future employers poking around your party photos and updates. Congratulations – you are loaded and you don’t care what people think. Don’t let celebrities influence your decision. They live on another planet.
2. Social versus professional content. Think about the interview process. Would you bring a photo album of your trips, parties and social outings to a career fair or interview? The answer is no, since this violates an established business norm. As you head into the working world, you will discover there are boundaries in the professional world. Work colleagues can become friends, but in the interim, one does not offer up a photo album to professional colleagues. Its just weird and creepy.
3. Content out of context. If your sarcastic wit is well established, your true online friends will understand the humor behind an update you make. A friend at work would say “I am not taking enough pills and alcohol today” when things were stressful at the office. It was part of his wit. If I came across this post, I could very easily assume the person had a drug problem. Context matters!

We have espoused a simple rule for managing your Facebook privacy and friendships. Consider applying this simple rule before you accept Facebook friends. Friend people you would invite in for dinner, or include in a group invitation for a night of karaoke. Sharing a meal in your home suggests you have a personal connection, and joint karaoke suggests you don’t mind making an ass of yourself in front of this person.

This simple filtering rule will help you create a line between your professional and social lives. It is simple and easy to apply.

What happens if a business associated or boss wants to friend you? If they don’t pass the filter, ignore their request and move on. If need be, drop them a polite note suggesting your Facebook space is an extension of your personal life. I have turned WhyHire.me students down with a polite response along these lines. No harm, no foul.

If you do have a boss that continues to pester you, consider your options carefully. They are in effect asking to enter your personal world. My suspicion is, Facebook social pressure at work will start creeping into lawsuits, since one could argue there is a line an employer should not cross. Pestering someone repeatedly is likely grounds for harassment. Check out this story filed by Erin Geiger. In time, HR departments will start clamping down on bosses who friend employees or prospects being considered for positions.

Your life need not be an open book.

You can’t see anything because you are not in a class that has adopted WhyHire.me as a program and learning environment for personal branding.  Those that have chosen to use the program have closed the doors to the public while they learn and explore the world of social networking for personal branding.  Yes, this generation is very aware of social networks because of Facebook, MySpace and YouTube but they are not familiar or comfortable with using social networks for developing a professional presence.  That’s why we have developed a place where they can learn and experiment with their classmates and professors.  We’re also playing with them in their new sandbox.  We have 14 classrooms involved in business programs at Algonquin College, Centennial College and Carleton University.

I spoke to a few classes recently and here are a few comments from students in the class:

“The presentation was great, I really enjoyed it even though it was pretty early on a Friday morning. I can say it was very inspiring for me, gave me new ideas on to what I can do with me as a brand.”

“After your talk today (which very much inspired me), I was thinking I would film an introduction video of myself for the profile. A sort of visual media piece to make me stand out and inform people of what I’m about.”

“I think the lessons and system are very educational. The creativity and thought put into this system is very much appreciated. It’s about time we started stepping away from just the traditional resumes and use technology to help promote ourselves. Congratulations to you and your team for being so innovative and allowing a new perspective into the education system.”

I’m looking forward to the second part of the term, as more students play, experiment and start to understand the power of the developing their own personal brand.

If I ignore a friend request from you, please don’t take it personally. Link to me in WhyHire.me and in Linkedin once you establish yourself and we have done some work together. Over time, we may very well become friend in life and online.

For those that collect friends like vendors collect business cards at trade shows, remember, you are making a social contract with these people. If you post items of a truly personal nature – a goofy photo, a self-depreciating comment or anything not professional, these posts can be misunderstood, or taken out of context, since your new “friend” does not really know you. Case in point, if you use sarcasm online and the friend does not really know about your sarcastic humor…they will misinterpret your post.

An extreme oh-o, is when someone copies and pastes your Facebook items and puts them in a blog entry for the world to see. Check out this story on Audra Sigler Shea and what happened to her racist remarks she posted in Facebook alongside her trusted friends. In this case, her nasty remarks were simply copied and shared with the world.

Keep your personal and professional world separate. This way you can keep up your sarcastic humor with your buddies and not worry about wierding  people out.