My Grey World » Am I Evil?

Am I Evil?

My professors in SMU are so cool that they have MSN accounts and encourage us to contact them via the messenger.

It’s pretty fun.

“Hi Prof, I encounter some difficulties doing the project… Do you have time to help me?”
“Hello prof, do you mind if ask you some question?”
“Hey prof, I have a question”
“Hey prof, you there?” *nudge*

But here’s the thing.. If you added them.. That means you’re their “friend”. Which means.. They can see your MSN Profile. And who the hell in the world doesn’t put personal things in MSN Personal Message? And especially those people who even put it in their nicknames.. Seriously, I have 200++ MSN contacts and I don’t expect to remember and associate all the e-mails, ok. At least put your name in the nick. Pretty pretty puh-leezzz.

Examples of common personal messages…
“Agggghhhh!!! School is killing me!!!”
“SMU is evil”
“I hate SMU”
“”

and so on and so forth. And yeah, it’s an opportunity to “stalk” you. Most people don’t understand that their mood fluctuation can actually be visioned just by paying attention to their PMs.

So? Do you feel comfortable that your professors (and they are PROFESSORS not for a dumb reason, ok) are able to see your personal feelings? This is the same case when your professors have facebook (some of them really do) and added you to be their friend. Now they can see your stories! Your status updates, your relationship stories, your crazy photos at the crazy party last night, etc etc…

Well, I don’t.

So I decided to block my professors on MSN. And I only unblock them when I need to talk to them.

Sounds evil? Unethical?

Most of my friends will say that I am evil/unethical/insert-thesaurus-here. Well I know, it might not be polite, and it’s kinda annoying. You only “use” a person when in need?

But for the sake of privacy….?

My principle is.. When I can control who to see my private stuff, I will control it.

The block feature in messengers is built not for nothing, rite?

5 Responses to “Am I Evil?”

chillycraps on October 31st, 2007

it is not evil lah…

it is like, your prof give you all his office room number, but do you give your prof your own house address? no right?

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Paddy Tan on November 1st, 2007

I gave my students and those that attends the seminars that I conduct my MSN too. But I do draw a line between asking questions related to the discussion to those that are just plain lazy and just wanna get some infor without having to google for it.

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Wilfrid on November 3rd, 2007

Oh, I have a similar thought but it is at work. One time, my supervisor asked me for my MSN id so that we can communicate in the office … and outside office.

Erm … seriously?! And I don’t really ask for my subordinates’ ids either. However, they do share their ids with me only because I have become their friends. So in a way, it is more of a social means to communicate rather than colleagues talking about work or knowing too much what I think about work!

If I were you, I would just create another id to communicate with the professors. Not unless I am really comfortable with that professor would I share my social id with him or her

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Bu-A-ya on November 3rd, 2007

I dont’ think it’s evil. Appearing offline on MSN messenger while you are busy or uninterested to chat with anyone isn’t evil either.

Anyway, I agree with Wilfrid about creating a new account designated for professional/academical use. Umm… I change my mind. Maintaining a yahoo account and a hotmail account is time-robbing enough. eH! That’s it! Why not use one of our e-mails for personal matters, and another for professional/academic dealings?

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sylv on November 4th, 2007

I seriously don’t think having separate accounts is a feasible solution. At least for me. I already have difficulties maintaining my identities online. No, I can’t be bothered to have one more.

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