I feel it is always important to truly know yourself and have the ability to take a step back and see how others may really perceive you. We are often quick to judge others by their actions and what they post, when in reality we are often guilty of giving off the same impressions. For this project, I will be acting as an unbiased outsider and analyzing each of my social media profiles. While working on this project, it opened up my eyes to how my academic life, personal life, and the overall first impression I create for myself may be perceived by someone who may not know me personally.
First to be covered is the review of my academic life, as told by my profiles. As expected with most young adults online, there is not a major academic presence for me online. One thing we can tell from my Facebook page is that I graduated from Manchester High School, and I am now attending Longwood University. We can see that I am currently studying Cyber Security at Longwood; however, something people will later find out through my other two profiles is that I do not seem to be entirely satisfied with the quality of education I am receiving from the cyber security program. One particular Instagram post reads,
“I’ve lost sight of my goals and ambitions and the high standards of achievement I set for myself before college. However today I decided I won’t be a victim of my crappy college education anymore and will get back on track with my goals independently without the help of Longwood. I hope the cyber security program here changes for the better for the future generations coming after us. #StayPositive&StayYou.” (Rubin_lp)
To some this post could come off as angry about the program, which could drive other younger candidates from applying to the program or the University as a whole. On the other hand I mention the hope for a future change for the generations to come, which may cause others to inquire the faults of the program or create an opportunity to ask my opinion on whether or not I think serious change is possible for the program. Overall I admit the post seems to be that of a disgruntled customer’s bad review, but it also offers inspiration and motivation to certain younger audience members on finding the direction they may want to pursue in the future.
Inspiration and motivation seem to be a common theme my social media profiles. From this we can gather I may seem to come off as a very positive and optimistic person in my personal life on and offline. Which may also raise the question, would my previous online outburst about the status of my education seem justified to most people, or would it simply seem like the ranting’s of an angry college student. Since there are no other similar posts of school frustrations, but are many other posts on other topics, whether angry or neutral, we get a sense that I am very opinionated and passionate about what goes on in my life. People may get the feeling that if something bugs me enough that I’ll feel I need to get it off my chest. Social media may not be the best medium for such activity, but to each their own. Moving on, we can get a sense of some of my interests and see that I am into fitness, motivation, the band Coldplay, and random things I may find funny or interesting like memes or comedy videos. I lead a pretty normal life for a person my age.
Overall I feel I am what people commonly expect to find from a normal everyday college student online. Although I notice that I post significantly less than others, I still feel like I am very well acquainted with the online community and am up to date with most of what is current. This is mostly seen from my Twitter account where I am much more active and post the most relevant and up to date content. I do not feel I will have much trouble with jobs as of currently with the status of my profiles but I often ponder the advice to be weary of posting my opinions so openly and the negative effects they have. I fear one day I may vent on the wrong topic and it may cause me grief later in life. However, for all I know, this online lifestyle and freedom of speech may become the way of the future with future generations. The world is sometimes a fickle place and it is often unpredictable what the future holds no matter how hard we try to control it.
Having an online presence can be a gift and curse for many people depending on how they use it. There are many opinions and suggestions on what is right and what is wrong for developing an online persona. At the end of the day, one will not know a true balance that fits him or her and his or her personal posting limits until he or she tries it his or herself through trial and error. I think I have done a decent job of maintaining an overall appropriate online footprint. The main similarities I see between my civic and academic lifestyles are my passion. My profiles show that if I am passionate about something, I will go for whole-heartedly and always do my best. I have a good amount of common sense about what to post, and what not to post, but I think it is clear that I will not promote anything I am not completely engaged in or do not agree with. However, I know this type of attitude could win over or deter various hiring managers without explanation from me first.
References
Rubin_lp. ” I’ve lost sight of my goals and ambitions and the …” Instagram, 25 Oct 2016, https://www.instagram.com/p/BMAnWc1Amts/?taken-by=rubin_lp.