Ben's Social Media Survival Guide

        Ben’s Social Media Survival Guide

Social Media is a place where we can instantly share our thoughts, photos, and almost anything you can think of. It can be a tricky place at times, so I am giving you my best advice for “surviving” social media with all the negativity there is in it.

There are frequent times when the lines between who someone is online and who they are in real life can be blurred. On my social media I usually post things related to skateboarding which accurately reflects my interests in the offline world but does not fully and completely describe my personality. It’s important to keep in mind that people tend to expect your online personality to be your personality at all times and not just your leisure personality when you are not in work, school, or any other non leisure situation. So when people see me online they see my leisure personality.

It is a good idea to have a mental filter that you send your content through before posting it, because once something has been said it is usually there to stay and is difficult to take back. So there are some things you should consider before posting anything on the internet. My favorite thing to think about is if I would mind every single person in the entire world seeing it. The good things about sharing online is that you can communicate with your friends and family when you’re not in the same place, and share experiences with other people who were not there. The bad things are that privacy is not a thing, it’s hard to take things back, and anyone can use and recycle your content without your consent.

There are three specific things you should think about before posting online and they are: lack of control, permanence, and immediacy. Once something is posted, there is no telling who will repost it or reuse it. This is lack of control. Once something is on the internet it’s usually there to stay. While most websites have an option to delete your content, someone could have just as easily taken a screenshot of it. This is permanence. Before the internet, when you had to write things by hand and publish them through a newspaper or magazine, you had a lot of time to think about it whether or not you actually wanted to say it or not. Now that everything is at the click of a button, people will often do things without thinking enough. This is immediacy. These are the factors that are the reason a lot of people make mistakes on the internet.

But how can these “mistakes” affect you in the long run? Some jobs will require a “social media background check” before hiring you. They use the information given on your resume and put it into a computer that will search through any account registered under your name. Searching for inappropriate material, discriminatory comments, or anything else that may make them think twice about hiring you. I personally do not agree with it, because as I stated earlier, your personality on social media is usually your leisure personality, and not your professional personality. However next time you’re about to post something, remember that a future job might want to check your social media content.

Some might argue that we have freedom of speech, but most of these people don’t really know what freedom of speech really means. You have the right to peaceably speak freely without the fear of punishment by law. Although you can’t threaten people, you can’t defame people, you can’t spread false information at the expense of someone else, and you can’t say anything that would promote violence. On the internet it can get complicated, even if it wasn’t originally your words that were unprotected by the first amendment. If you repost something and it costed someone their life or their job, you could be held legally responsible for it. Another place where it can get complicated is the concept of trolling. Internet “trolls” are people who say ridiculous things on the internet, not because they mean them, but because they want to get a response from you. Their main goal is to get attention. They may say mean or hurtful things, or they might just say something crazy that they know you will respond to. There is a simple solution to the problem of trolls, and that is to simply not give them the response that they want and it will no longer be fun for them. Though it can be hard to tell a troll from someone who is just a terrible person.

You could always post anonymously, but even that does not truly hide your identity behind the screen. Anyone can find the IP address of your device and the network you are connected to, even where the it is located. It just may take some work to do. The good however is that you can post things that require work to find out who posted it. And a large portion of people who use websites that have anonymous options are not willing to take the effort to find out who you are except under extreme measures.

To conclude this article, I will leave you with my three best tips for to anyone on social media: 1, Do not post or say anything you wouldn’t want every single person in the whole world to see and freely repost and reuse. 2, Do not post inappropriate material or illegal activity. And 3, Next time you see a post or comment and you think, “gosh that’s rude,” or “gosh that’s ridiculous,” discontinue your urge to respond because there is a good chance that it might be a troll. Thank you for reading my blog, see you next time.

- Benjamin