Don't judge a book by it's cover

Remember looking through the library at your elementary school pulling out each book just slightly so you can peer at the cover to decide if it grabs your interest? Remember when an adult caught you in that act (because we know all adults have eyes all over their head -sorry for the horrid image!) and wisely told you not to judge a book by it's cover?

If we have been told time and time again not to judge a book by its cover than what about the infamous book so many are involved with today : Facebook?

Facebook goes against this age old advice and rather encourages you to judge a book, in this case a person, but its cover (a profile). Now, it is true you can Facebook stalk a person and climb through hundreds of their pictures to discover that they are images of skydiving, bungee jumping and cliff jumping to deduct that they are an adventure seeker. But what if you are told that at any given point one picture can be pulled out of context, pushed into the public eye, and hold you accountable for any public assumptions that may follow. As an educator I have images of my times in classrooms, working at day care, babysitting alongside pictures from New Year's and family camp. So, I don't have anything to hide. I am a fun loving, adventure seeking, educating girl and I feel my Facebook reflects that.

Throughout an American collegiate experience how many times are you told to keep in mind that Facebook will be used as a deciding component of whether you are worthy enough to receive the position?

So here is the catch : Facebook has been in Australia for just one or two years shy of American and yet my mates haven't been threatened with the Facebook warnings and furthermore haven't heard of any companies using Facebook as a tool for evaluating employees.

Is it only a matter of time, are individual's privacy more respected, or does the Aussie culture not care about Facebook and the plethora of information it provides?

Cheers, from a Facebooker

p.s. picture thanks to weheartit.com