Posting On Eggshells

The internet comes with more warning signs and stickers reading, ‘Vicious dog on premises!’ than… a property with several vicious dogs on the premises. We need firewalls, fraud protection, and seemingly, fake identities. With so many news stories accompanied by photos pulled from Facebook  profiles (they’re technically public property), and bosses monitoring our behaviour online – how free are we to socialise on these networks? A UK reporter was reportedly told to delete her Twitter account for risque sports commentary, and there are constantly stories of employees being outed for lying about sickies by their online activity. I know many people who scope  out potential employees’ profiles for incriminating evidence – drunken pics, and expletive-laden posts. It’s obvious that whatever we wouldn’t want everyone we know – and those we don’t –  finding out shouldn’t go into the vast google-tube. But doesn’t self-censoring our innocent jokes with friends, and the pictures we allow ourselves to be tagged in, or that we share, defeat the whole purpose of what is supposed to be a free avenue to connect with loved ones?

In a unit I take called Online Journalism, we were told to re-evaluate our online presence to ensure it represented us as budding professionals, not the poor, fun-seeking uni students we probably are. We were warned not to post anything overly-personal, or not of a wider interest on our Twitter accounts, which should be treated more like news outlets. This is all practical advice, and something that’s important to consider. But personally, I’d rather delete my presence entirely than use “social” networks as nothing but a veiled CV. In a lot of instances it’s difficult to ensure profiles are privatised, although Facebook does allow almost complete ability to block your account from unauthorised views. I believe most people have the ability to be sensible enough about what they throw into the public eye that they can still enjoy the benefits of social media without having to screen their own conversations. I hope any future employees that may judge me for joining that group called ‘If Mr Bean was an Avatar he’d look like this’ learn to see the humour in it, too. Maybe I’m just being optimistic – how many of you censor your tweets and posts?

– Anna Angel