One of the dangers of social media I think warrants more discussion is the fact that everything we do these days is being published. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn- the number of platforms we use keeps on growing, as does the amount of personal information we publish on a daily basis. Even this blog, these exact words, will be posted online for everyone to see. 100 years ago, even 50 years ago, that idea would have been absurd- no one would have guessed that an average 21-year-old student would have been able to write some words and post them somewhere so that the entire world would be able to read them. While it's exciting to be a part of this revolution and have that kind of power, I think there is definitely some danger involved with this capability.
We've all heard the horror stories from our peers and parents of not getting hired after potential employers went through social media accounts and saw something incriminating. I personally try to make sure that nothing about me pops up online that would shed me in a negative light, but it's a difficult task- everyone takes pictures, everyone makes posts, it's just not possible to maintain a completely positive and completely risk-averse presence online.
With that being said, I think social media accounts should make more of an effort to ensure that their users are protected. Viewing and deleting old posts and pictures should be easier, and there should be better methods to ensure that nothing is published that individuals wouldn't want the world to see- as we all know, once it's online, it's out there for good. Digital publishing clearly has its benefits, but the dangers are growing as well.
Very interesting points made here, Graham. I think you’re right about social media being a wonderful commodity that can boost our reputations and simultaneously destroy them. It’s so true that employers and families can see the things posted that maybe aren’t so professional like a night on the town drinking with your buddies or a picture at a house party with red solo cups and/or drug paraphernalia floating around. I think it’s wise to try and keep those things off your online profiles, but just to play Devil’s advocate for a minute, won’t the employers and our parents/extended families just ask why we’re doing things that might get us into those situations to begin with? Everyone knows we’re in college and that college kids typically like to party but some people are oblivious to the fact that some college students drink to get schwasted. If we weren’t in those situations in the first place, we wouldn’t have to worry about incriminating photos, right? It’s unrealistic but food for thought.
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