Whether a person has any social media accounts or not, they will still end up having an online identity. That identity could be that they exist, but if you were to enter their name in a search engine the results would be next to none. Others, like celebrities,  you can type in their names and the results will be anything but scarce. If my name, Brooke Eamigh, were to be typed into a search engine it gives just a little insight of who I am.

The search results link me to some of my social media account, to my parents, to my siblings, to some of my academic and community accomplishments, and to Alpha Sigma Tau. Here at Longwood, my role academically is living and breathing art education. I spend majority of my time in Bedford Hall and spend hours on hours volunteering at the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts. I am a member of Alpha Sigma Tau, which has made me have more of a role in the local community. The volunteer work we do opens me up to meeting people in the community and being able to help out in numbers of ways. AST also provides me with encouragement to uphold my academic role over any and everything else I do.

Art education is a major filled with different topics. Not only do you take education courses, but you have to be familiar with every different type of art. In this field you choose a mini-concentration to further your knowledge in that field, and I chose crafts. I then took it a step further and focused my crafts concentration on ceramics. There is something I just find fascinating about every aspect of ceramics. More importantly, I love that it is such a therapeutic thing for me.  Ceramics is a universal and timeless thing. I have spent hours at a time online researching anything I can about ceramics. The internet is actually very helpful to the art world in general. Most of the time artwork/museums/etc. are not accessible to us for a number of possible reasons, but the internet gives a way to still look into those things and let us have an opportunity to explore them, even if it is not in person.

As I update this blog, the common topic will be social media usage. I will mainly discuss the risks people take when using social media and how social media users can learn to avoid some of those risks. I will also discuss how aware people should be when they use social media because it can be a long lasting reflection on who they are.

My online identity is something that I have become more aware of within the last few years. Within the last year it has become something that I have been aware of due to the sorority I joined in January. Also, with my graduation from college date rapidly approaching, I have begun to try to clean up my social media and have tried to be conscious of what I am posting. My posts on Facebook and Instagram have changed drastically over the last year or two. I even look back on things I have posted in the past and cannot believe I was posting such things. Posing as an outsider looking in at my social media, it is visible to me that my maturity level has grown. Unlike the past, I now primarily make posts that relate to my future career and the important parts of my life.

In the past, I never took any time to think twice about what I posted on social media. The most inappropriate posts were pictures of me and others drinking underage. In these pictures, there was not even an attempt to hide the alcohol and viewers can tell that we were intoxicated. With how many posts there are that include drinking or going out, it is evident that my academics were not my top priority. At the time of those posts, academics indeed were not my top priority. If future employers were to see these posts they would not have a very positive opinion about me and most likely would not hire me. Not only are these inappropriate to future employers, but they are also inappropriate and against the bylaws of the sorority I am a member of.

Joining a sorority has influenced much of what I post on my social media. Not only have my posts turned into more things about my sorority, but my posts have also become more sensible. Because of my sorority, I now think twice about what I am posting, because not only am I representing myself, but I am also representing this national organization. I would never want any of my sisters to be viewed negatively because of something inappropriate that I have posted. My posts in the past year have changed significantly because I have become aware of how it can affect the people I surround myself with.

Looking at posts from more recently, it is evident that academics, as well as my sorority, have become my top priorities. The majority of my posts within the last two years have been about art, education, art education, and art therapy. Many of my posts are also about me doing homework or pictures of my completed art work. Compared to what my posts were in the past (drinking, partying, etc.), this is a sure sign that my maturity level has increased. My posts are not simply just random things anymore. They are well thought out and are greatly important to me. Unlike in the past, when I post something on social media I try to think about if the post is something I will later look back on and regret. With that said, I typically only post things now about how school is going, what my sorority is up to, and most importantly, articles and such on art education and art therapy. At least three times a week, I will post an article on art therapy, and how it is making a difference in peoples’ lives. Since art education is my major, and art therapy is my dream job, the amount of things I post of the topics definitely relays how important both of those things are to me. I have even started to go back through my old posts and pictures and remove the ones that can be inappropriate to future employers. Unfortunately, I still have a habit of reposting certain jokes, videos, etc. that could give off a poor impression of myself. These types of posts are definitely not as frequent as they used to be, but they still occur sometimes. It does seem that I typically apologize about the language used within some of the jokes or videos; but nonetheless, this still does not make up for the fact that I am posting such things.

Art education and art therapy are at the top of my priorities list. Whenever I find an interesting article or study on either of the two, I immediately share it on my Facebook to try to educate other people about the two. Also by posting these types of things, future employers will see how interested I am in my field of work and that I am constantly trying to better my methods of teaching and knowledge of the art world. What can negatively affect my future though are some of the jokes I repost, or even some of the things I just find humorous about drinking. For example, I have reposted something before that says something along the lines of, “What I need: -A whole bottle of wine. –A million dollars. -3 days worth of sleep”. Things like this could possibly be taken the wrong way by future employers and be seen as inappropriate or give off a false impression of myself. With that being said, I will definitely become more aware of the things I post along those lines and really think about if what I am posting may be a deciding factor of whether I get a job in the future or not.

Yik Yak is about as good for college students as allowing a verbal purge. As much as the app is a nice place for people to anonymously express their opinions without repercussions, it is also a place where people can feel attacked. Sure, the app gives great opportunity for typically shy people to shine, but is that worth the opposite end of the spectrum where the app is giving the opportunity to people to ruin peoples’ self-esteems, reputations, and more?

Now, Yik Yak deserves some credit, because they do try to maintain the amount of inappropriate and harassing posts there are on the app, but that does not mean it keeps the posts away entirely. The use of certain words prompt a message that cautions the poster that what they said may be seen as a threat or inappropriate to Yik Yak or law enforcement, and asks if they really want to continue to post what they said or not. With that said though, the user can still select that he or she thinks the post is appropriate and choose to continue to post it even after being given this warning.

If the user decides to ignore the warning, this can then lead to people being upset by the yak. When Yik Yak first reached my college, it was an exciting new thing, but quickly it became something I wanted no part of. The negative posts seemed to fill the feed, while any positive post was getting down voted so quickly by users that is was removed. Do we really want our campuses to be filled with negativity and hate instead of positivity and acceptance?

Some college students feed off of apps that cause havoc like Yik Yak tends to do, and even though nobody, unless they tell others, will know they are the ones who created the posts, they will still feel accomplished because their posts will get so much attention.  “Anonymous forum, whether ones that are localized like this, or even comment sections, provides a forum for people who are essentially mean psychopaths to activate that part of themselves. It legitimizes it,” said Penn State media studies Professor Matthew Jordan. This puts students at a disadvantage, because those negative posters will only continue to speak harshly and hurtfully towards others, and maybe even at some point towards the students encouraging the posts as well.

Though Yik Yak is supposed to be a community policed app, instead college students tend to be encouraging the negative posts. In my experience with the app, yaks that were crude and demeaning towards others were the posts with the most up votes. On the other hand, positive and inspiring yaks were being down voted within seconds of being posted, and were removed from the Yik Yak feed before the yak even had a chance to reach more than those five people needed to get it removed. Anytime this is pointed out though, students do not tend to care because they will not see any repercussions for posting such things.

Is community policing on the app really doing anything? Are students really stepping up and calling people out for their cruelty? Some say that because the app is anonymous, more people will stand up and stop the bullying from occurring. As much as I want to believe that to be true, the more people who try to stop the cruelty or stand up for others the more other users make sure to remove those comments immediately. College students are encouraging their fellow peers’ cruelty towards others. Having a way to anonymously bully others is not as great as college students think.

Yes, this means that users could get away with your mean words and possibly not be punished for them, but that does not mean the people being bullied aren’t being harmed by it. On an occasion at Eastern Michigan University, a professor felt she had been “defamed, had her reputation besmirched, had been sexually harassed and verbally abused” (Mahler) after seeing the things her students had posted about her during one of her course sessions. She was so distraught that she wanted to hire a lawyer. Although students may not be held responsible, nor are they given repercussions for their words, they are still hurting people emotionally, whether they care to realize it or not.

Students have enough to worry about during college, why add another thing to their plate? What student wants to have to worry about if they are being yaked about on Yik Yak, or worse what student wants to see a yak about themselves on the app and have to go through their day facing people who know them and have most likely read the yak? No college student, or even college professor for that matter, should have to worry about being verbally abused on an app. The cons of Yik Yak outweigh the pros by a landslide. College students should think twice if the app will be beneficial to themselves or not.

Editorial this is written in response to: http://www.wired.com/2015/03/yik-yak-online-anonymity-good-college-students/

References

Junco, R. (2015, March 17). Yik Yak and Online Anonymity Are Good for College Students. Retrieved December 30, 2015.

Logue, J. (2015, October 22). Who Should Prevent Social Media Harassment? Retrieved December 30, 2015.

Mahler, J. (2015, March 8). Who Spewed That Abuse? Anonymous Yik Yak App Isn’t Telling. Retrieved December 30, 2015.

Rios, E. (2015, November 11). Everything you need to know about Yik Yak, the social app at the center of Missouri’s racist threats. Retrieved December 30, 2015.

The majority of social media sites have an age requirement that has to be met in order to use them. While some have an older age requirement, thirteen is the most common age restriction for social media sites and/or apps. (Bennett) This is due to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA). The Federal Trade Commission website explains this rule as follows: “COPPA imposes certain requirements on operators of websites or online services directed to children under 13 years of age, and on operators of other websites or online services that have actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information online from a child under 13 years of age.” (COPPA) COPPA is a rule that is trying to protect the privacy of those 13 years of age and younger. This rule prevents personal information about children in this age range from being obtained. This personal information includes, but is not limited to, things like their first and last name, their address, contact information, and even information about their parents or others that they may associate with. Just because there is this rule that does not mean that it is always followed.

Although there are these age restrictions, most of these sites have no legitimate way of enforcing an age restriction of thirteen and older only users. Users can easily lie about their age in order to create a profile. As of February 2015 in the United States, Facebook is the most popular social media used by teens and young adults between the ages 12 and 24 years old.(Children’s Privacy) Another study found that “52% of 8-16 year olds ignored Facebook’s age limitation” and lied about their age to make a profile. What is more shocking is that of these children 13 and younger, 68% of their parents helped them create Facebook profiles. (Magid) While this is perfectly fine, parents and their children need to understand what the outcomes of this decision are. Not only are the children now no longer covered by COPPA, they are now also beginning to create a digital footprint. If parents make the decision to allow their children who are 13 years old and younger to have social media, they need to educate them on the risks of different behaviors online and monitor them to make sure they are taking these risks seriously. I believe that there are two courses of action that could be taken by parents to make educate and monitor their children.

Social media has become a big part of society over the years, and I do feel that children under 13 should be able to be a part of this, but parents should take the time to talk to their children about protecting their personal information online and what is appropriate behavior online. One of the primary topics parents should discuss with their children is that what they post online is permanent. Whether they delete the post later on or not, what they post is an everlasting representation of who they are, and that it can (and probably will) be seen by their future employers. Now I know at the age of 13 and younger these children are most likely not thinking that far ahead into the future, but it is never too early to instill this concept into them. There are numerous times I have seen things I posted in my teens that I am so embarrassed about, and I would hate for my future employers to see such things. Not only things that I posted, but how my friends and I publicly spoke to each other in a way that was inappropriate or disrespectful towards others. For example, when I was younger, for some insane reason my friends and I thought it was okay to call each other bitch. Looking back now, I can see how this is totally inappropriate and can make me look bad. Parents should take into consideration talking to their children about the impression they can give off with what they post. My parents never took the time to have this talk with me, and I feel as though if they did maybe I would have thought more seriously about the things I posted and the effects they could have on me later on in life. Parents can also take the time to educate their children how to change their privacy settings on Facebook, so their information is not as easily accessible.

Facebook has different privacy settings that its users can have. Parents should take the time to go over these different settings with their children, and explain to them why it is so important to keep information safe. Children 13 and under should have all of their settings on Facebook set to where only users they are friends with can view their profile and what they post on it. Most children do not know or understand the risks that they take when they give out too much personal information on their social media. One study found that ‘43% had messaged strangers, starting from an average age of 12’. (Reporter) This is a major red flag. What are these children talking to these strangers about? Could they be giving out private information to the strangers that they think is fine to share? To prevent this from happening parents need to discuss with their children what information should not be shared online. They need to help their children understand that once they put that private information out there they can never take it back.  Parents can also take this a step further by monitoring their child’s Facebook.

A child’s Facebook could be extremely monitored or just slightly monitored. If a parent wants to slightly monitor the Facebook profile, they can simply just be friends with their child and express concern to their child if something they have posted is dangerous to their privacy. On the other end of the spectrum, parents can take drastic measures to monitor their child’s Facebook profile. Internet filters, such as Net Nanny, can be used to block social media sites and can give parents access their child’s friend-related activities. (Gruenewald) Some of these filters can also be used to set time limits on how long a child is on their social media sites. They can also give parents the ability to monitor the pictures and videos a child is posting online. Some parents also use the approach of having access to their child’s password to monitor their social media use. By doing so, the parents will have complete access to all the activity their child has on their profile. This could help prevent the sharing of private information, or at least make the parents aware if this kind of information has been given out through messages that cannot be seen on the child’s page itself. No matter which method parents choose to monitor social media usage, there should always be communication about social media with their children who use it.

As stated earlier, some children do not realize the risks of giving personal information out to strangers. Parents need to communicate this to their children, and make them aware of the dangers. Parents should also discuss with their children what behavior is appropriate and inappropriate for other Facebook users to use towards them. Having open conversations with your children and making them feel comfortable with being open and honest with you about their online life is important. A child psychologist, Dr. Richard Woolfson says, “Parents need to maintain an open dialogue and encourage children to share both good and bad online experiences, and make sure they keep up with the latest social media crazes and work with their children rather than trying to control them.” Parents can use this as an opportunity to build trust and a stronger relationship with their child. If the child knows their parent are looking to be there for them and help them when something is making them feel uncomfortable, then they are more likely to confide in their parents about the issue. Not only should parents be interested in bad situations their children could come across on Facebook, they should be equally interested in the good things that happen as well. This will show their children that they not only care about their safety, but that they also care about their interests and feelings as well.

Despite these facts, there are some parents who want their children 13 and under to have nothing to do with social media. Some parents are worried their children will be a victim of cyber bullying, or may even be the ones doing the cyber bullying. While there are tragic and fatal cases of underage children cyber bullying other children, this does not mean children should not be on social media altogether. Diana Graber expresses her concern for this matter in her article on huffingtonpost.com. She talks about the case of Rebecca Ann Sedwick. Sedwick was a “12 year old who jumped to her death after enduring a year of cyber bullying from two girls, ages 12 and 14”. (Graber) Graber is concerned that the fact that the victim and one of the two perpetrators were not of the minimum age required to be using the social media sites that the bullying was taking place on (Facebook, Ask.fm, Kik, and Instagram).  She also expresses how she feels it is inappropriate for parents to be giving their consent to these children disregarding the minimum age requirement and allowing their children to lie about their age to make a profile. She states how not lying is an implicit agreement we all make in living in a civilized society and that she does not agree with the fact that “as a society we have largely given up, giving age restrictions a collective shrug and “so what?””. As much as I agree that lying is not the best thing, it is not the end of the world nor does it make us an uncivilized society. Parents just need to make sure that they are educating their children on how wrong cyber bullying is and of all of the different negative outcomes that cyber bullying can have.

Other parents are worried that by using social media their children will become drowned in it and develop an addiction to the social media and shut out the outside world. This is another reason why parents should simply just monitor their child’s social media usage. They could also use program Net Nanny that was discussed previously. Parents can set the amount of time their children can be on their social media to make sure that it isn’t taking over their life. It would also be helpful though if parents understood that the use of social media is inevitable. Their children are just simply adapting to the advancements in the world around them. Amy Jo Martin also says, “Parents [and educators] need to think long term and recognize that their kids are building a personal brand from an early age.” She continues by discussing how their children’s digital footprint is going to have an impact on so many different aspects of their life. She says that, “Social media will help connect them with like-minded individuals, including mentors, that share similar interests and aspirations that can help them achieve their long-term goals”.  Amy Jo Martin also makes another extremely valid point when she jumps forward to when these underage children are applying to college and jobs. If these children have been taught how to use social media to its full potential and to their advantage by their parents, then they could have ‘proactively been connecting with future professors, industry leaders, and executives at companies’ to get a head start on their future. Martin explains, “They’ve already built a network of people who they are sharing valuable content with, allowing their strengths to shine”. If parents proactively educate their children about how to properly use social media, then it can be a great advantage for them in the future. Just take Martin’s advice and follow these steps to do this successfully: “Sit down with your kids and ask them what they know [about social media]. Do an informal assessment and study their proficiency. Hop on the computer and mobile phone to evaluate their proficiency and better understand what they know. Then, after you’ve educated yourself, educate your children.”

References

“Children’s Privacy.” Children’s Privacy. Web. 08 Jan. 2016.

“Complying with COPPA: Frequently Asked Questions.” Complying with COPPA: Frequently Asked Questions. 20 Mar. 2015. Web. 08 Jan. 2016.

“Most Popular Social Media with U.S. Teens 2015 | Statistic.” Statista. Web. 08 Jan. 2016.

Gruenewald, Nathan. “The Importance of Social Media Age Restrictions.” The Importance of Social Media Age Restrictions. 27 Jan. 2015. Web. 08 Jan. 2016.

“Children and Social Networking Sites.” Netmums. Web. 08 Jan. 2016.

Bennett, Shea. “Minimum Age Requirements: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Secret [INFOGRAPHIC].” SocialTimes. 29 Sept. 2014. Web. 08 Jan. 2016.

Boyd, Danah. “Why Parents Help Their Children Lie to Facebook about Age: Unintended Consequences of the ‘Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act’ | Boyd | First Monday.” Why Parents Help Their Children Lie to Facebook about Age: Unintended Consequences of the ‘Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act’ | Boyd | First Monday. 21 Nov. 2011. Web. 08 Jan. 2016.

Graber, Diana. “3 Reasons Why Social Media Age Restrictions Matter.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 08 Oct. 2014. Web. 08 Jan. 2016.

Grasz, Jennifer. “Number of Employers Passing on Applicants Due to Social Media Posts Continues to Rise, According to New CareerBuilder Survey.” U.S. Job Growth Expected to Hold Steady in the New Year, CareerBuilder’s Annual Job Forecast Finds – CareerBuilder. 26 June 2014. Web. 08 Jan. 2016.

Gross, Doug. “Social Networks and Kids: How Young Is Too Young?” CNN. Cable News Network, 03 Nov. 2009. Web. 08 Jan. 2016.

Madden, Mary, Sandra Cortesi, Urs Gasser, Amanda Lenhart, and Maeve Duggan. “Parents, Teens, and Online Privacy.” Pew Research Center Internet Science Tech RSS. 20 Nov. 2012. Web. 08 Jan. 2016.

Magid, Larry. “Letting Children Under 13 On Facebook Could Make Them Safer.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 04 June 2012. Web. 08 Jan. 2016.

Martin, Amy Jo. “The Truth About Kids And Social Media.” Fast Company. 24 May 2013. Web. 13 Jan. 2016.

Reporter, Daily Mail. “More than Half of Children Use Social Media by the Age of 10: Facebook Is Most Popular Site That Youngsters Join.” Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 5 Feb. 2014. Web. 08 Jan. 2016.

Sengupta, Somini. “For Children, a Lie on Facebook Has Consequences, Study Finds.” Bits For Children a Lie on Facebook Has Consequences Study Finds Comments. 28 Nov. 2012. Web. 08 Jan. 2016.

Williams, Rhiannon. “Children Using Social Networks Underage ‘exposes Them to Danger'” The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 06 Feb. 2014. Web. 08 Jan. 2016.