UPDATED: Is the “transparency” craze of Web 2.0 making us a more honest society?

Allow me to begin this post by noting that I don’t have the answer, but I think it’s an interesting question and one that I’m inspired to consider and share.

With the rapid growth of social networking, everyone is talking about being transparent. I define this as being yourself and saying what you really think and feel. But I often question, why wouldn’t we be ourselves in face-to-face meetings as well? Why don’t we say what we truly think and feel in person? Why, because we’re hidden behind a computer screen, do we think that now it’s the time to speak our minds… and to the masses?

For me personally, I’m a fan of honest professionalism. This means being forthright and speaking your mind, but always maintaining a certain level of professionalism, particularly with business associates and clients. It baffles me that suddenly transparency is a craze because of Web 2.0. Shouldn’t it have always been present in our relationships and business dealings if it’s so important now?

Here are just a few examples of total transparency on Twitter. Further proving my point, I included Twitter names yesterday with these transparent folks’ tweets. I have since been contacted with the request to delete the posts, as a few of these posts were to remain a ’secret’. Really?

@ man, you have gained weight since your profile pic.

@ I’m so ugly but that’s okay ’cause so are you!

@ I am a little bored sitting in my cube at work, don’t tell my boss…. 5 oclock can not get here soon enough!!!!

@ Anonymous is my future husband, just don’t tell his wife or my boyfriend

@ …moving to Charleston. Shh it’s still a secret on Facebook my work doesn’t know.

@ I probably shouldn’t interrupt my parents’ conversations by saying “i’m pregnant.”

So it begs the question, is social media making us more honest? Do we speak our minds more now that we have a platform upon which to do it ‘safely’ behind a screen? And how does this transparency apply to our professional lives?