The Internet of (too many) Things and women

It would not be an exaggeration to state that our lives have changed forever with social media and digitalisation

I have been wanting for some time now, to use the power of the humble pen to write about the power of the mighty Internet. It would not be an exaggeration to state that our lives have changed forever with social media and digitalisation of just about everything around us. So much so that I have often wondered if I should start to feel a little bit frightened of my shiny, bright smart phone, which, despite being quite temperamental, probably knows a lot more about me and my life than I would like it to.
It has access to my work, social, family and fitness calendar; it knows all my friends by name, their GPS location, and it knows how I check my Chinese horoscope every day and don't step out of the house during solar eclipses. Worst of all, it knows when I press "tap to snooze" and skip my workout.
Despite this growing fear, what I do know is that my smart phone connects me to things and people that expand my network and who deeply impact my life, both personally and professionally. Whether we choose to control this or whether we let it control us is entirely our own decision.
I have a lot of female students, law graduates, trainees I speak with, interact with, work with and who look to me for guidance and support in their careers. They are totally "connected" and can teach me a thing or two about my phone. The one thing that I always have to tell them is that the Internet is a tool to use carefully. It shapes our online identity which can be accessed, despite privacy settings, by a lot of people.
Men and women have a tendency (to put it mildly) to see things differently and this disconnect carries over to how each tends to use social media to further their respective careers. I've talked in this column before about how men have no hesitation talking about their strong points to their bosses and this is also true on how they use the Internet. Most studies have shown that women use social tools in the context of workplace to communicate with their colleagues while men use it to extend and expand their professional networks. Women need to become a lot better at this.
Over 37 per cent of corporates and their recruiters use the Internet to screen the potential of job seekers, over 89 per cent of whom use social media and have an online presence. That literally means that approximately two out of every five corporates evaluate and consider you for a position based on posts, comments and photos they see on your Facebook page (is that why everyone is always checking in from a business class lounge somewhere?), Twitter and LinkedIn (is that why everyone is always endorsing each other?).
Positioning oneself in the right cyberspace and engaging electronically with the rest of the world takes some thought and care. If you are not online, you practically don't exist.
On the other hand, if a Google search of your first name instantly shows up your red carpet worthy photograph and you are not an active participant in Hollywood or Bollywood (or a much revered fashion blogger, an exceedingly successful profession, I've come to learn), there may be some cause for concern.
I think that women do themselves a disservice by not separating their personal and work identities effectively on social media with enough segregation to send the right messages, as the lines between where professional ends and personal begins have become very blurred.
And whilst studies show that companies are taking advantage of social media in order to hire you, most 20-26-year old believe that they could do their jobs better if their companies were more supportive of the use of social tools. To top this, 34 per cent of corporate employees feel that their management underestimates the benefit of social tools in the workplace. Ironic isn't it?
One of my young Arab female interns once told me that she had, in the past, experienced a lot backlash based on the fact that she did not wear a veil, something that the male members of her immediate family and their society demanded of her since the workplace would be full of men. She told me that she had been able to change attitudes with the use of social media by being able to project and discuss her opinions in a social online and public forum, and that she got so much support that her family was able to accept her choices. This is yet another example of perhaps what a smart phone is capable of.
The Internet is a powerful tool, both professionally and personally - use it wisely, and just remember that there is no such thing as offline.
The writer is a partner at the law firm of Baker & McKenzie Habib Al Mulla. Views expressed in this article are hers own and not of the firm or of the newspaper.