Good old Facebook. Someone entered “Joe Nobody (not his real name … duh! But his read name is right there on the facebook page) went to his 10:00 class drunk today.” Now it’s not like that is at all anonymous. I can’t quite figure out why someone would do that. A cry for help? A joke? I dunno. But schools read these things, you guys. C’mon. Be smart. (And please don’t go to class drunk. Or stoned. If you come to my class that way and I find out I’m gonna be mighty ticked! … and yes, I have wondered about a few of you at times …. Hmmm. You are friends with this guy. Double hmmm.)

I really am baffled by the university students who blog so openly about what they do and what they think about their instructors. Names are mentioned. (Ever heard of search engines? Take the time, on occasion, to run a search on your name. Run a search on your instructor’s name. You might be interested to see what you find. On google you can do a blog search.)

We might be old and out of touch, but many of us know how to run a computer. A lot of us can read facebook (I learned to read years ago, tis true, but I still remember how!). So why blog about things that might get you into trouble? Why admit you haven’t practiced at all, or that you hate your oboe instructor, or that you think you know more than your professor? If you’re going to do that, you should consider doing it privately. Heck, I wouldn’t even put those kinds of thoughts in writing.

Oh … and for some anonymous student musician bloggers? Well, it’s fairly easy to figure out who you are. Trust me. It’s not like I go out searching, but it’s just not that difficult to find out who a musician is when he or she blogs about a recital and gives out tidbits of information. I don’t make a habit of searching out who is who, but I just think you might want to be a bit more careful.

The internet is one gigantic worldwide billboard.