Whether we like to admit it or not, social media is a big part of our lives. We access social media every day, constantly posting about our daily lives and social life. However, this might not always be a good thing.
Believe it or not, it’s pretty easy for almost anybody to find your social media profile and access everything you post. It’s actually sort of creepy. Just about anyone can look up my twitter account and have a pretty good idea of who I am just by what I post.
They’ll know what I ate for dinner last night, that I want to go ice-skating soon, and that I post a lot of pictures of my boyfriend and me. Things that my peers at SXU might not even know about me.
I remember one morning, I woke up to hateful messages on my Instagram account from a man who lives in Switzerland. Like, how did they even fall upon my social media page?
Even though we usually only use social media for posting pictures with friends at a bonfire or family occasions, or even a fun night at a party, we have to be aware of the consequences.
Especially being a college student, I think that being proactive about our social media profiles being appropriate is important. Before you apply for any job, on campus or off, one of the things that many employers look at is how you present yourself on your social media profiles.
An employer is less likely to hire you if your social media is full of pictures of you getting wasted at a party. Employers look for responsible, professional, and mature people. These types of pictures say the exact opposite about you.
That being said, before I apply for jobs I go through my Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc. and give it a makeover. I delete any posts or photos that probably would not help me get the job. Even if you don’t post anything inappropriate, sometimes the pictures you posted when you were 14 might come back to haunt you.
Giving your social media a makeover helps you control what your image is and how others will view you. Another reason it might be important to monitor your social media is that it can affect other people.
If you post a picture of your friend getting wasted at a party, or anything else that is inappropriate, you have no idea who can have access to that picture. Just because there isn’t inappropriate things on my social media but there is on my friends social media, that is still showing off a bad image of who I am.
Also, let’s say your starting to get to know someone and you think you might have feelings for this other person you probably go and look at their social media first.
I know I’m not the only guilty one doing this, but you might take a look at their profile and next thing you know your 130 weeks into their Instagram.
I am less likely to act upon my feelings if I see something on your social media that shows me a side of you or a part of you that I am not very fond of. I probably won’t even tell you that’s the reason I backed off.
So maybe posting things that show who you really are, what your interests and talents are is a better idea. Social media is supposed to be like a sneak peak into your daily life and who you are as a person. You might want to be careful about what people will think about you after they see your social media pages.
Even though social media pages like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are meant to keep you connected with other people, it is mostly public and you should be concerned about what you post.
I encourage all of you to ‘creep’ on your own social media and do some spring-cleaning on your profile to ensure you are representing yourself positively.
Susy Macias
Senior Viewpoints Editor
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