After doing some research about myself and the community in which I live in, it became very shocking to me about how much can be found out about me that is highly accurate on the internet. My Facebook profile can be looked at and any form of social media such as twitter or linkedIn can be looked at as well. I fortunately do not have anything embarrassing or stupid on social media profiles, but there was a bit of a wakeup call for me when I saw everything that could be seen about me on the internet. People can search my phone number and see the exact area in which I live. Also, through websites that look at demographics, people can see the exact environment in which I grew up in.
Someone could look at my profile on Facebook and see where I go to school, and that I am interested in Music, movies, sports and many other things. Also, through looking at my area demographic people can see that I grew up in a well off neighborhood that is very suburban and predominantly caucasian. My linkedIn shows my job experience and gives a sense of my minimal experience for someone my age. There is so much that can be found.
It is incredible to think about how accurately one can be depicted on the internet, and how one slip on a profile could lead to some trouble. I for one am not a huge advocate or user of Facebook. I actually try to avoid using it as much as possible. However, there is enough information about me on my profile for someone to get a general feel for who I am. Every photo I am tagged in, every post I make, every like I make anyone can see. It is the fact that I could be associated with one problematic post that could throw my credibility out the window to someone who could be trying to hire me. Anything posted is available to the public and even if it is deleted, it could still have been screenshotted and saved by anyone in the world. I truly understand the power of the internet, and I now am even more aware of the power of media sites.
I completely agree with the statement you made about how one little slip-up can have a major affect. It is apparent that, as we get older, employers will look more and more in depth at our social media profiles and judge us based on that.
ReplyDeleteThe whole idea of social media being permanent is pretty scary to me. Pretty much everyone has that dumb teenager phase, and it's easy for an old post on facebook to be misconstrued, as you mentioned. I like the idea of the "right to be forgotten", which is implemented in the EU. Basically, if it's not in the public interest to know something, you can get old links removed from search engines to prevent a false or outdated image of yourself from being promoted.
ReplyDelete