We are in a perfect storm moment for any of us to ruin our career, relationship, and/or reputation. We’ve been locked in our homes. For many, the job of the future is unclear, and every time you turn around your 11 year old just started practicing the French Horn at the same time you started a Zoom meeting. OK, maybe that last one has impacted just me. However, there is plenty of activity around your ever-shrinking house that is driving you nuts right about now.
Yup, stress levels are high, and the pre-March 2020 options for handling it have diminished greatly. The gym is closed, and so is the bar. Venturing outside is now met with a certain level of trepidation. Add to this pot of quarantine stew a heated election, civil unrest, plus a dash of this and a 1/2 cup of that. What do get? Stress, tension, and for some of us a bubbling rage that needs to get out. So where do you go? Well, there are plenty of options, and I’ve seen plenty of blogs that give recommendations. This is not one of those blogs. Where do you not go? You don't go to your computer/ phone/ iPad or other devices that take you into the battlefield of social media.
I get it. We are all passionate about things in the world, and with less and less human interaction, Twitter, Facebook, and others can become that way to connect. Connect = good. Rage posting = not good. Here are just a few examples of some of those who have burst into flames during the shutdown:
A dean at Virginia Wesleyan University posted that people who voted for Joe Biden are “ignorant, Anti-American, and Anti-Christian…. You have corrupted our youth, You have corrupted our country.” This guy is no longer part of the VMU Marlin community.
A long time NBA broadcaster is no longer a long time NBA broadcaster after his tweets related to the Black Lives Matter movement.
A deputy White House liaison shared her views on the the LGBTQ community. Do you want to guess her job status?
A restaurant owner in my town made a sketchy Facebook post and nearly all of his staff quit in protest the next day. Yeah, the post was pretty bad.
Google search people who lost their job because of social media, and you can spend the rest of the month reading story after story just like these. Is getting fired for voicing your opinion outside of work sound fair? Maybe, maybe not. However, its the reality of the world, and what is most surprising is these aren’t kids getting in trouble. These are grown men and women who would typically know better than to behave this way in public, and that is what social media is; it's public. Instead of making a drunken fool of yourself in the local bar and three strangers see you, people are making fools of themselves in a viral media age where everybody can see everything
Several years ago, I gave a series of presentations at a local college about the perils of social media. At the time, we were only really focused on Facebook. I ended the presentation with a picture of one the students holding a beer at a keg party with a girl on his arm. The picture wasn’t anything overtly bad, but it did show an underage kid drinking. Oh no, clutch your pearls and scream “I never”. Well, I have, and I did it quite often in my youth. The point I made to these students was that I didn’t find anything wrong with the picture, but I asked that student if he was going to bring this picture with him to his first job interview. Of course, he wasn't.
Anything you post anywhere on the web will be found whether you like it or not. The youth and early adopters of technology learned that lesson in social media’s early years, at least a few of them did. The older generations are learning it now with much more painful results. A picture of a kid at a keg party isn’t likely to ruin a young person’s career. However, rage tweeting at some other quarantined soul on the internet could cost you a job, a career, and much more.
What about free speech? What about my first amendment.? Well, you still got it. You can say almost anything on social media, and the government can’t do anything to you, but your boss, your company, your clients, and your community certainly can. So be smarter and better than that. None of us want to be remembered for our worst moments, and nearly all of us have said or done something we regret the next day. However, when you put it online it is never forgotten, It lives forever. So think about that the next time that tweet makes your blood boil.
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