Online Identity Reflection
Cassidy Taber
English 400
Online identity can be important due to the fact that it can affect one’s life outside of the Internet. Professionally maintaining a personal life online is important because it will not negatively affect your academic and career life but it will also help you maintain a positive reputation with your friends, family, and professional superiors. Individuals who are applying to career level jobs should be aware that employers look into social media as being a factor in the hiring process. Some employers will proceed to look at potential employees’ accounts online in order to see if the interviewee would be a worthy representative of the company. While having various social media accounts, I have successfully maintained my social life online with a professional manner by keeping my posts to a minimum, posting pictures that stay true to myself, and posting about relatable topics while staying non-controversial.
As an active member on social media sites I keep my posts to a minimum. On my Facebook page I do not make statuses updating my virtual friends on what I ate for lunch or what movie I am watching at the time. I only post when I feel it is necessary to get the people I know up-to-speed on what exciting events are going on in my life. I post a lot of pictures of my boyfriend and I going on new adventures as well as my family and I. I do not post all the time; however, my posts all have at least a month in between them. For example, in the month of April I made a post and did not make another post until nearly the end of May. I think that this is different from the academic version of myself because I am usually very involved and have a lot to say, on social media I do not. I believe that scarcely creating posts leaves less room for employers mistrust you based on how you represent yourself online.
In being engaged with social media I think that it has also been important to myself that I try not to let the professionalism barrier (what is okay to post online and what isn’t okay to post) keep me from reflecting my true personality on the Internet. A lot of users who are cautious of what they put on their social media think they cannot add in their personality to their online life, they can only have a life online where they look at what other people are posting without being allowed to post anything themselves. I believe this to be untrue as I think my Facebook page has prospered in making my virtual friends laugh and be entertained without using any debatable content. On May 26th, 2017 I reposted a video about a wild squirrel that was injured and saved by a family who named her Jill and kept her as a pet. My Facebook friends seemed to really engage in my post judging by the amount of likes I received after posting the video. I reposted another video about a rare, incredibly adorable marsupial that I had never seen before. I felt that it would make others happy, so I reposted it. I post these videos every now and again because people seem to enjoy them as much as I do. Internet users need to be aware of what they say as well as what they post. Users need to focus on what they comment on others’ pictures, videos, and statuses to make sure they are not disputable as well as what they ‘like’ on Facebook. Users tend to forget that there are ways that employers can look up what you have ‘liked’ on Facebook and they certainly would not be pleased to see their potential employees ‘liking’ anything inappropriate.
Lastly, I believe I have continued to cultivate my social media accounts with care and attention being sure not to create any questionable posts. Paying attention to such details is essential to the compatibility of your Internet life and your professional life. It is good to stay away from politics, religion, and anything else people tend to disagree on or that may be a sensitive topic. I like to think that if I would not bring up that subject to someone I just met then I probably should not mention it online. While you think you may know whom you are posting to online (i.e. friends, family, co-workers, etc.) you really never know who sees your posts.
There are many ways that social media needs to be kept professional and I believe that I have done so by writing limited posts, staying true to my personality, and keeping my Facebook page innocent and relatable. Of course, there are certainly ways that my social media could use improvement due to lack of professionalism. I have pictures on my Facebook page that are of myself and friends at concerts and parties, which do not live up to academic standards. I think that I am entitled to have these pictures on my page, however, because I am not wearing or saying anything tasteless. I think this differs from my academic life because my pictures show that I am surrounded by a lively, party atmosphere. It is the same as my academic life in that I remain professional in the way that I speak and physically present myself. A lot of people seem to be under the impression that social media has a blurred line between the social and professional world. In retrospect, the line is very simple to spot. I always try to recognize what I should and should not be posting by taking the time to think if the content I want to share with cyberspace always making sure that it is in moderation, reflecting my true self, while still being irreproachable.