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Social media has been pretty predominant in much of my life.
In middle school and part of high school, Myspace was very popular. In late
high school into early college, Facebook became really popular. In mid college
Twitter and Instagram became popular. In a way I feel like social media has
evolved with much of my generation, and I can see this as a blessing and a
curse.
What this means is that many of us have been on social media
for a long time, throughout many phases of our lives. Things that are important
to us and spark our interest in middle school, high school, college, graduate
school, and in our adult lives vary greatly.
Just think about the app Timehop, or the “On This Day” button on
Facebook- these things show you what you posted on a given day since your
social media accounts started. I know that I cannot speak for everyone, but I
am sure there is a post or two from your past that make you think “ehh maybe I
should delete that.”
I changed my name on Facebook and increased my privacy
settings in college, with equal motives of protecting my identity and ensuring
professionalism upon entering the “real world.” My generation is huge on taking
photos and posting status updates with location check-ins, which can be pretty
dangerous in terms of security. It is so easy to gather pertinent information
about people these days. As time has passed, Facebook has really become more of
a way to keep tabs on my family members and some people that I don’t get to see
very often. I would currently consider myself lightly active on Facebook- and
more heavily active on Instagram. I don’t post much personal information on
either site so I do not have concerns about personal information being leaked.
For a new person starting out on social media, I would
encourage heavy privacy settings at least in the beginning while they’re
figuring out how maneuver the internet. I think adults who are entering the
world of social media would approach it a little more responsibly. Social media
safety assemblies and presentations should be mandatory for students to warn
them of the dangers of social media – both to their safety and to their
professionalism down the road.
As we know, there is a thin line between posting enough information
to create your personal brand and putting yourself at risk for security
threats. I think in terms of brand it is important to post content related to
your brand- articles, etc. But I think its possible to post information about
yourself and authentically show who you are without giving too much away. One
way to ensure your privacy and safety is to make sure you have very secure
passwords on all accounts – social media or not.
Danielle,
ReplyDeleteI can completely relate to that feeling of opening Timehop, and immediately being shocked at what I thought was appropriate to post on social media 9, 10+ years ago. Privacy did not apply and never once did I think my parents, an employer, or anyone would ever see these posts or pictures again (BOY was I wrong!). It was as if a stream of consciousness was being spewed all over my social media footprint. I don’t specifically recall ever being taught or educated on the ramifications that can come of what you post on social media. Not only for professional implications, but security as well. Realizing that hackers can use personal information that I willingly put out there to break into my account by trial and error combinations of my birthday, hometown, mothers middle name, etc. through the “Forgot your password?” link (Microsoft, n.d.) never ever crossed my mind!
I’m glad you tied in the difference in social media security between adults and youth. I posed the question on Alyssa blog (http://alyssacoral.blogspot.com/2016/02/digitally-enlightened.html) about whether or not she believed we should be teaching social media safety in an educational setting such as local school systems. Mary Beth Hertz is a High School Art and Tech Teacher in Philadelphia and has already taken it upon herself to educate her students on this topic. “Students learn about how their digital footprint affects their job and college opportunities, about what cyberbullying is and how it affects people, about IP addresses and posting anonymously, and many other important topics” (Hertz, 2015). I think this practice should definitely be implemented on a larger scale.
Many of the pieces of information security sites warn us to not post online, is exactly what David Scott recommends we share to properly build our personal brand online. You mentioned you attempt to build your brand through the type of articles you share, which is a good way to develop engagement and conversations without divulging your birthday, hometown, or mother middle name.
We seem to be presented with competing philosophies between what David Scott considers important information to share in an effort to build your personal brand online (Scott, 2015), and information that many sites consider a threat to your security when made public. What do you make of this? How do you think a user who wants to build a personal brand online can distinguish between what’s appropriate and safe to post and what’s not? Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!
~Nicole
Resources
Hertz, M. (2015, February 13). Social Media at School: Teaching Safety on the Virtual Playground. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/social-media-school-teaching-safety-virtual-playground
Microsoft (n.d.) 11 tips for social networking safety. Retrieved from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/online-privacy/social-networking.aspx
Scott, David M. (2015). The New Rules of Marketing & PR. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Hi Danielle,
ReplyDeleteI really love how you touched on the fact that our generation has really grown up on social media. When we started on social media, it was all new and there wasn’t any talk about privacy or protecting your personal identity (and if there was this talk, I was too young to even notice). I posted probably way more information than I should have and yes, I have also deleted quite a few posts. I also went through my Facebook albums to make all of them private once I finished college and began my job search.
I am way more cautious with what I post and also mainly use Instagram. Luckily we are educated and understand the importance of this but many people are not. I really think education on social media etiquette and privacy concerns is something that needs to be taught at a young age. How do you think our generation can help shape this conversation for generations to come?
Hi Danielle, Nicole and Alyssa,
ReplyDeleteVery interesting posts to learn more about how privacy and personal information could be shared. It is interesting to see how both sides can be valuable, either to openly share personal information, yet keeping valuable personal information safe and secure. While the readings this week show us the importance of keep information private as much as possible, as advised by the wiki.internet2.edu web site: “Don't reveal too much information about yourself. Depending on the information you reveal, you could become the target of identity or property theft” (wiki.internet2.edu, 2013, p.2); there are some authors, like Scott (2015) who explains us the importance of keeping personal information as much open and ‘accurately personal’ as possible, like in the case of a personal photo, for example: “If you care about your personal brand, you should use a photo of you and not a pet or an image of your car.” (p. 274)
The way Internet grows makes it really difficult to manage and control, specifically from the risk management perspective. People and organizations’ systems are constantly at risk of being attacked and the vulnerability grows as fast as the advancements. For most of us who have grown with the explosion of social media and the vulnerability in privacy, all these issues could seem a matter of applying only a good dose of common sense. However, newer generations seem to be less worried about these issues and even underestimate them. Sometimes I feel as if new generations grow with a different internal “chip” which reads many of these issues and either find a way to avoid them or simply become truly candid victims of a risky Internet environment.
I had the first-hand experience to witness serious ‘cyber-problems’ from some of my colleagues and friends’ children, and also witness how easy they can get away from all these risks without even blinking. Will this perspective leave out the idea of teaching the cyber risks at school? Would you guys agree in this idea of the way newer generations approach privacy and security online?
Thanks for the wonderful conversation. I learn a lot from you!
Carlos
References:
Scott, D.M. (2015). The new rules of marketing and pr: How to use social media, online video, mobile applications, blogs, news releases, and viral marketing to reach buyers directly. [Kindle version]. Retrieved from amazon.com
Wiki.internet2.edu. (2013). Social Networking Security Information Security Guide. Retrieved from https://spaces.internet2.edu/