(Image source: https://calmatters.org/commentary/2022/03/new-privacy-protection-agency-needs-more-time-to-develop-regulations/ )
I have never been one for using very much social media. This comes from my desire to keep what I love most safe and private. That being said, could that very desire be potentially harmful in the future? Today, I learned that it could be the very thing that hurts me.
For years I pictured there was really only one way to look professional. This was to have very little interaction with social media and to keep it all private. This outlook however comes with a little hook. If I don't make my social media on all platforms then someone else could. As a future educator this is a scary thought. Not having control over what the social media world sees could be the thing harming my career, family, and friends. With this idea in mind you never what or who is willing to tarnish your name and potentially ruin your life. In the future if my students or students parents look me up on social media then I want to know exactly what they will see.
Often I tell my self to be proactive instead of reactive. This circumstance is no different. I should be proactively creating my social media platforms in order to create and maintain control and safety of my life. This proactivity is purely a defense mechanism to prevent what could happen and not what will happen. If I can do anything to help protect the future of my wife and child you bet I'm going to do it. Especially if its something as simple as creating social media accounts.
I loved what you had to say on the topic of social media and the risks we take as educators with not having them (or not being very active). I will say that I am on the more mainstream social medias but I hardly ever post to them and if I do I make sure everything is private (including friends lists when applicable). If this helps, on facebook you can set your settings to hide any friends that aren't mutual, so if someone tries to see photots that you are tagged in on an account that is not yours they won't be able to see them unless they are friends with that other person as well. This will help keep photos that you did not publish yourself out of the hands of students, parents, or administration.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post Cory! This information really took me by surprise too. I have always been under the impression that looking professional meant dressing and acting the part but I never thought about having social media platforms set up to protect myself. I use instagram and thats it. What I have learned from you and from class is that I need to create other social media sources to protect myself from students making a fake account for me. This seems like a bit of an insurance plan. The effort and intention behind the creation of new accounts seems excessive but it may protect me one day in the future!
ReplyDeleteCory!
ReplyDeleteThis was part of the lesson that I thought was extremely valuable but also a little shocking! It almost seemed backwards in my brain that social media which in my personal opinion has several cons and needs to be handled with care is essential to us in the education world to protect ourselves, our jobs, and reputations. Your idea of being proactive I think has a lot of value and is definitely something I have been thinking about. On top of the safety issue I think that having social media and managing it well for ourselves will give us as educators the tools to help our kids do the same thing.