This is a prime example of what happens everyday to people who aren't careful with their online reputation..
just in case it didn't work!....
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With the social network world growing at the rapid pace that it is, employees and companies alike are learning daily how to cope with growing digital reputations: both good and bad. As young adults grow up and are presented with opportunities, the carelessness with what is being posted for the world to see on the internet is diminishing their chances of starting careers, making friends, or growing in the personal (physical) world socially. My intent for this paper is to open the eyes of users in the social world to take more responsibility for what thoughts and actions are posted online for all to see; the digital world and the real world are more intertwined now the ever before. The way we are perceived digitally has the power to determine our fate; people need to learn how to responsibly control that aspect of life. In this paper you will find facts from both sides of the professional spectrum when dealing with online personas, as well as personal stories that bring a harsh reality to the comfortable digital day-to-day lives we live.
With developing technologies that are evolving, to compliment our social networking necessities, there is a growing ethical issue of how we are supposed to represent ourselves digitally. Along with how social networking profiles are currently having an affect on opportunities. Career advancement is at risk if a person who is 100 % qualified has an inappropriate picture representing them. Along with bad pictures, a disrespectful post to a blog or website which can be directly linked to that qualified person will consequentially diminish their eligibility to get the job. Before the internet and social networking was a mainstream day-to-day commodity, the way a person was perceived was achieved by how well they represented and carried themselves; the mannerisms, proper speech and clothing choice all contributed to the overall way the person was perceived by the observer. While those small personal aspects are still a large part of a person's perspective value, there are more things being acknowledged. It is a growing ethical issue where some argue that their digital lives and physical lives should be separate and not directly affect the other. As time moves on, we are constantly being reminded with new stories and experiences of how the digital and the physical couldn't be more intertwined and directly related to each other.
The way we, as humans, perceive our surroundings and information that is presented to us is a complicated (scientific) process. Before technology entered the picture, there were tons of scientists and psychologists who tried to reason with how the human brain perceives it's surroundings and tried to make sense of all that we deal with in our hectic day-to-day lives. When the Internet and social networking along with portable phones and e-mailing came into the picture, another aspect of learning how to deal with our new surroundings and information was born. In a book titled Ideology and Social Character (1978), there were so many interesting facts about the human brain and perception brought to my attention. It brought the idea of how real we make the words and pictures that we see on a digital screen in our heads. In some instances, words alone, self-inflicted pain or pain inflicted on others is driven by words written on social websites or when they're sent to others. Sometimes, the after affects of being consumed by the words that is inflicted on us or to others (that we seem to be increasingly addicted to watching for change) indirectly affects the relationships that we hold with people in the real-physical world. Also, stated in the Ideology and Social Character book (1978) .When this supposition is analyzed in terms of its actual workings in practice, we discover that individualism breeds self-centeredness and this self-centeredness, in turn, creates an intensive degree of intolerance, and to some extent, hatred for others as long as they are not part of one's pleasure-promoting process. This intolerance and/or hatred for others, which is rather general institutional decline in America including the family structure. (P. 209) With this brought to our attention, how many of the people reading this article can admit to spending less time with their family because of being so in tune with their digital life with their social networks? Probably a large percentage-which coincidentally also ties in with how the social networker is perceived by those around him or her.
Besides the professional aspect of how your digital persona can affect you in real life, there are people-to-people interactions that can also tamper with your friends and families perception of who you are. A girl named Jordan Ramharter was just entering her freshman year at the University of Vermont, in Burlington in the year 2010. She had been there for a month or two when something, which is imaginably one of girl's worst fears, came true. She was just settling in and meeting new friends and creating a name for herself amongst the UVM community when it hit her. She explained her story to me over a year after the incident occurred;
(Shelby Caret. Photograph of Jordan Raharter's Facebook Story)
I then asked her if she took anything away from the whole experience and she finished with,
(Et. Al. Facebook Story)
There are so many more stories in the world similar to Jordan's, this is proven by a study conducted during 2008 about the issued of 'sexting' which is revealing ones self digitally through cell phone messages or emails. The article states that, of 1,280 teenagers and young adults of both sexes on Cosmogirl.com sponsored by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, 20% of teens (13-20) and 33% of young adults (20-26) had sent nude or semi-nude photographs of themselves electronically. (Additionally, 39% of teens and 59% of young adults had sent sexually explicit text messages.' (Sexting. 2011) When incidences such as this, along with another from Katie Smith who earlier in life while attending a private academy was given similar but not as horrific news,
Shelby Caret. Photograph of Katie Smith's Facebook Story
The Facebook that she currently has is the one that a random friend made for her, without her consent. Which shows as proof of how much power the media has over people and their digital perceptiveness to others.
Standard (In-person) interviewing procedure has been pretty black and white since the dawn of corporate America. From a website featuring an 'Interview and Career Guide' there were some common sense tips given for the person going in for a one on one interview. 'Follow the job interview dress code, introduce yourself with confidence, comply to requests of the interviewer, to sit, take coffee, etc, use your interviewers name when answering a question, answer all questions honestly and when the interview is finished, thank them for their consideration. (Job and Interview Guide. 2011) All of these tips are useful and good to have, however, after the interview is said and done the interview isn't actually sealed yet; Your online identity is the last test they put you through in order to determine weather you are qualified for the job.
Not only is that the case for the new employees but with large companies as well. As said in Andy Beal's book, Radically Transparent, 'Traditional word-of-mouth has long been considered one of the most powerful of market forces, and social computing makes it public. The Internet provides a megaphone for the disgruntled-with no entry barrier, little legal accountability, instant commentary, full multimedia communication and free distribution channel to millions worldwide. And people like them find these complaints credible.' (2008. P. 9) Which brings me to my point, with all of these media outlets that people are constantly grazing with their eyes to find the most reliable insight into the consumer world the worst review could lead to your greatest downfall-one unhappy customer could change the opinion of one million interested buyers. When Andy goes into more depth about companies that have experienced some bad reviews on their own time he makes the point that, .With the explosion of social networks and consumer-generated media, no organization, brand, or individual escapes online mention by stakeholders, like it or not. (Et Al. P.11)
On the other hand, many companies use this immediate connection with consumers to their advantage. If there is an instance where an interviewee, new corporation or upcoming designer feel that their brand needs to be recognized; social perception is absolutely the quickest route in this day and age to plant that seed into the consumers mind. The social media can be your enemy, while at the same time can help your reputation and worth grow to valuable amounts that were never even thought to have been possible before the past couple of decades. In an article that I stumbled upon, the author (Manuel Castells) stated that, Created in the commons of the Internet this communication can be locally based, but globally connected. It is built through messaging, social networks sites, and blogging, and this is now being used by the social and psychological theories. (Exploratory. 2011) Which couldn't be truer, the more options we have to connect socially the broader the audience receiving the information is. With the help of our peers and those who we allow to view our social life, we can set things straight and towards a more positive representation of ourselves; as said in Lambert Maguires book, Understanding Social Networks, 'the system is composed of relatives, friends, neighbors and colleagues from work who help individuals who are willing to help themselves. (Understanding Social Networks. 1983) Meaning, if we all were to come to the same conclusion (which happens rarely but ends fabulously if achieved) we could set a common standard for what is acceptable to be posted for all to see which would lead to many happy interviews, scholarships and real-world reputations in the end.
