Context Collapse-That's what that is!

I was actually kind of relieved to find out about context collapse through the voicethread and articles this week. I have often experienced discomfort when this happens, and I thought it was just me! At my current job, I made the mistake of allowing coworkers to friend me on Facebook, and now I feel hesitant to post anything for fear that someone I work with won't like it for some reason, and that it will hurt my career. Although it doesn't seem to bother some of my coworkers, who are still very vocal and post a lot on Facebook despite the number of coworkers on their friends list, it's good to know that I am not alone! I wonder why some people experience discomfort when context collapse occurs, and others don't. It's funny, because running into a fellow student or coworker out in public doesn't bother me nearly as much as having so many people from different contexts on social media.

I experience the most worry about posting opinions on Facebook, and especially those that are political. If it was just friends and family I might be less worried, but it is a much more difficult thing to traverse when people from my professional life are involved. Interestingly, I read a study recently that described social media use of students, and the majority of them reported the same hesitation about participating in political dialogue on social media. The number  one reason given for this was a fear that political posts might hurt their future career opportunities. So, maybe this is a common concern (although I wouldn't have guessed it by the posts I see in my news feed every day). A link to the study is here.