My foray into technology and social media has been a blessing and a burden. I say this because I am now fully aware of the impact that the internet and social media have on my identity, but I also often become overwhelmed by this same revelation.

My personal network of friends and co-workers is well versed in social media, public relations, advertising, branding, and programming, which has in turn forced me to adapt to the media driven world that we now live in. Although it may be upsetting to view Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Digg, Flickr, etc. as a direct communication to those in our professional lives, it is. Yes, privacy settings do exist, but there is never an option to completely erase your existence within the network-and why should you? Isn’t the point of these social media outlets to expose yourself to a community in which you can network, share information, develop relationships, etc?

Simply put, the answer is yes. However, the implications that follow this answer are strongly present. Through my own experience and in speaking with several anonymous employees of companies here in Austin as well as in DC, where I previously worked, I discovered that before a candidate is even interviewed, he or she is thoroghly researched. This includes “googling” the person, checking his/her facebook profile and pictures, finding information on myspace, reading updates on Twitter, etc. The more involved you are online, the longer that list becomes.

However, rather than viewing this process as an infraction of your privacy, perhaps you can learn to use it to your advantage. By utilizing various social media networks and projecting yourself in a positive, professional light, those that do find information on you will respect you as a person, both personally and professionally. Essentially, there is no separation between our personal and professional idenities.

I recently came across a newly published book, titled Born Digital: The First Generation of Digital Natives in which the authors, John Palfrey and Urs Gasser discuss the implications of a generation built upon online identities and the pressures of maintaining an identity that successfully reflects who we are in the physical world (meaning, not online):

“Born Digital explores a broad range of issues, from the highly philosophical to the purely practical: What does identity mean for young people who have dozens of online profiles and avatars?”

This question specifically appealed to me as I have been questioning how we, as the youth of social media, are to adjust. Previous generations have not created the same online blueprint as we have and therefore may only have their “professional” life online. In other words, think of your grandfather-he most likely began using the internet in his late 40s or 50’s (depending on his current age). This means that not only does he only have about 10 years of data on the internet, but the type of information available relates to his work and possibly e-mail with family and friends. Compare this to a student of our age that has an entire lifetime of data online from pictures on myspace, a secondlife account, a past hotmail account, a g-mail account, a facebook profile, a linkedin profile, twitter updates, videos on youtube, etc.

What does this mean? Are we of an entirely different culture? As I stated above, how do we cope with the disintegration of a separation between our personal and professional lives? And if there is no place to “let loose” online, where will we turn?