Social-Media Stupidity

Let me start by saying that I'm glad I didn't have social media when I was a teenager. (Facebook, Twitter,  blogs, and even MySpace didn't exist, believe it or not. And I didn't have my first cellphone, a walkie-talkie-like device until I was 18.) I mean, I'd like to think that I would have handled it maturely and responsibly, but I'm sure I was better off without it. Unfortunately, it seems to me that many people of all ages have been guilty of egregious misuse of social media. Or, as I've so bluntly phrased it, social-media stupidity.

As one fine example, recent news headlines (A Texas Teenager Got Fired For a Tweet...) have trumpeted the unfortunate (for a number of reasons) story of a teenage girl in Texas who obviously tweeted before thinking when she complained, with a liberal use of explicit language, via her Twitter account, about the new job at a pizza joint that she (thought she) would be starting the next day. Her boss, who was alerted to her tweet, wittily responded, also via Twitter, that she wouldn't have to bother with the bleeping job because she'd been relieved of her duties.

I could only shake my head upon reading it. I'm genuinely concerned about the younger members of my generation, and the one rising up behind them. They're growing up with the Internet, cellphones, instant-messaging, Facebook, Twitter, and blogs as part of their everyday lives. Unlike me, they don't remember a time before these forms of communication existed. These things aren't dangerous in themselves. The danger comes when these tools are misused, as they frequently are, and unfiltered thoughts and images are posted without consideration of consequences.

But adults are also guilty of posting uncensored information on social-media, and they're also facing potentially-harsh consequences. Yesterday I read the news story of a Marquette University tenured professor, John McAdams, who could be fired for blogging about a  professor-student classroom dispute that college officials clearly did not want publicized. According to this Slate article, Firing A Professor Over a Blog Post, the professor, when discussing the situation online, outed his colleague by name and apparent political leanings, leaving no ambiguity as to her identity, and libeling her in the process. But despite the damage to his colleague's reputation, and the likely loss of his job, McAdams stands by his post:

 "As a blogger, McAdams wrote, he has the right not to keep the whole thing quiet. And he said that principles of free speech and academic freedom should allow him to speak out as he did."

McAdams proves the point that I'd like to make. I'm all for freedom of speech (My Freedom-of-Speech Defense) and personal expression (I wouldn't blog if I wasn't), but there are always potential consequences for using it. 

Here's the thing to remember: When you post (or tweet, etc.) information online, it's available to more than just your friends and family. (How many people have been fired, or at least harshly disciplined, for posting something they believed would only be seen by friends and family? More than one.) It's likely to be read by someone outside your inner circle, perhaps your current boss or future boss of your dream job, who could, respectively, fire you or not hire you based on your drunken ramblings and/or inappropriate sharing of information and photos. You never know who might be lurking (until your post, photo, or chat-board use puts you in hot water).

Think very carefully before posting any work-related information, especially if it reflects negatively on your employer and your position, as well as any potentially-harmful personal data, as it may say more about you than you'd intended. Err on the side of caution. Or, in my case, on the side of paranoia.

Some thoughts belong only in your personal journal. Some belong in a text to your BFF. Some belong in your therapist's office. And some, like your laundry schedule, belong only in your own head.To paraphrase the serenity prayer, we all need the wisdom to know the difference.