The outlets and usage of social
media continuously change just like our ways of communication have been since language emerged. Over the past few years, our usage of social media
has been recorded in correlation with the increasing importance of social media
to the business world. In looking through the data accumulated about me over
Facebook and Google, it’s strange to see such insignificant details of my life forgotten
years ago suddenly resurfacing. It was quite an interesting view into my past in seeing
who I used to be friends with, what was important to me, and how much my life
has changed in just a few short years.
Facebook especially led me on a
walk down memory lane. My posts and likes from my pre-teen years are very
comical to me now, but I was glad that I was the only one reading them. It concerns me how much has been saved over
the years and how much information someone could possibly find about me if they
set their mind to it. The ad data about my interests on Facebook was a little
puzzling. Things I had searched for minimally came up as a main interest. For
example, I like the musician Beyoncé a decent amount, but an ad topic came up
about her nine times, which seems a little excessive compared to other things I
usually search for. Their odd statistics about me were perhaps due to the fact
that I have only ever clicked on an ad on Facebook twice according to their
data, both of which I believe happened
accidentally, as well. However, Google’s information seemed generally accurate
because it chose broader themes and genres of interests compared to specific
topics.
What scares me most now about the
data collected from social media is the permanence of our digital footprints.
Now more than ever, employers and other influential people look to these sites
to get to know a person before hiring them. It can take one angry or insensitive
status to give a negative impression about someone, which in many ways is not
fair. Social media should be a chance to communicate with a global village
without constant fear of ruining your future (Lule 2012). As my generation
enters adulthood, we must analyze everything we post to make sure it will
reflects us in a positive light. I realize that now I post for future employers
sometimes instead of the person I am. Maybe the solution lies in finding a
balance, but with social media as sometimes the main reflection of personality
to the world, none of us have anywhere to be truly ourselves. It’s a little
disheartening, but that may involve editing your profile and deleting a few of
those Spring Break pictures. As I spoke about before, social media continues to
change and reshape itself. While it may be discouraging, it’s necessary to
accept these changes if you are going to participate on social media and navigate
the job market successfully.
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