RuthAnnHarnisch.com

A Class for Digital Dinosaurs

by Ruth Ann Harnisch on 12/02/08 at 2:24 pm

I was the only kid in class who showed up with an iPhone 3G, a BlackBerry Bold, a tinyVaio with Verizon connectivity, and an AirBook.

Some of the kids didn’t bring any toys.Some of them couldn’t find the wirelessnetwork, even though the name of the network and the password were up there on the big screen in front of the classroom.

Shelly Palmer was debuting his new seminar on Upsizing Yourself, a guide for Digital Dinosaurs and Digital Tourists. Digital Natives need not apply, unless you kids need a jolt of feeling like a freakin’ genius in the land of the clueless.

Shelly’s newest four-hour course is based on the book his publisher would not allow him to call ‚Äú45 and F*****d,” for the obvious reasons. But that’s who the course is for ‚Äì anyone 45 years old who looks around the modern workplace in today’s economy and says, ‚ÄúI’m ______.”

Although I feel pretty digitally literate, I know I’m a few years behind on DOING everything that I KNOW to do.

(Duh, this blog is at least a decade overdue.)

Shelly says everyone needs three distinct digital personas. There’s your business, or public profile. This is the only one that everybody in the world should be able to find when they Google you.No party pictures, unless they’re of Mother Teresa handing you an award for humanitarianism.It’s the impression you create for the world. Don’t look like a jerk.

There’s your personal profile ‚Äì the one where you show up on other people Facebook pages, or your own, with some casual shots and personal details. You shouldn’t put anything up there you wouldn’t want on the front page of the newspaper.

Then there’s your private, private stuff. (You still shouldn’t do anything online you wouldn’t want others to know about, because others do.) Password protected, invitation only, opt-in private.

Each of these presences should employ ‚Äúbest practices.”

Tonight he’s going to get to a few of those, I expect.

I’ll keep you posted.

‚ÄúEvery man is my superior in that I may learn from him.”