In the last few days a rugby league star has faced another media storm over his off field behaviour. Behaviour that was caught on a smart phone and set free by social media. The result being that he was sacked by his club and may well struggle to continue his career.
A “friend” took the snap of his antics, but said “It was never meant to go public”. The player later said “I didn’t know it would surface like this”. Doh!
Fact of life... the world is becoming increasingly populated by smart phones and social media. A statement by a rugby league commentator that struck a chord for me was “Nothing you do is ever off the record.” How right she is.
It reminded me of a couple of friends of mine who went through their own nightmare when their private actions were caught on a smart phone and also downloaded from their own Facebook pages. These photos, which were taken without their awareness, let alone permission, were subsequently used by another person to claim that my friends’ behaviour was “unsafe”. The aftermath was very damaging.
All of us have invested an enormous amount of effort, not to mention $$$, to enter our profession. It would be an unmitigated disaster for it all to be lost in a spontaneous moment of “fun”.
Now, I haven’t always been an angel, but I grew up in a world before these new gadgets.
I think there is a message here for all of us in this new world reality. No matter how good we think we are, our behaviour can be captured digitally and spread out of our control. So we must be so careful that it is behaviour we are happy to have scrutinized. It is too easy for others, perhaps with malicious motive, to criticize and even judge us.
I can’t remember where I first heard it, but I think it has some value in this respect...
“You are how you act, so act well.”