I’ve tried to keep my online presence limited because I don’t want embarrassing pictures from my youth to haunt me when I transition from college to the working world. It’s exciting as a young person to try out different paths and see what works best for you - with friends, majors, ideas - knowing that it’s okay to change direction and even make some mistakes along the way before finding a road you really want to follow. However, I don’t want to make my adventures and misadventures public for the world to see, so I keep my social media accounts private. I know that for many young people, it’s important to their self-esteem to have a big online footprint. Some are even willing to sacrifice their reputations to attract more followers, but that’s not me. I use social media mostly to post what I’ve been doing with my family, friends, and my dog. I do “like'' and comment on things that are important to me, such as political issues and animal welfare. In 2016, a mother took her children to the zoo and didn’t notice when her 3-year-old son snuck into a gorilla enclosure, where a male gorilla stood over the boy. Zookeepers quickly killed the gorilla and the little boy was fine, but the cost was the death of a beautiful endangered ape. Witnesses said the mother had not been paying attention to her son. To me, this was irresponsible so I posted my opinion on social media. As it turned out, millions of people felt the way I did and hopefully, the public outcry raised awareness among parents to watch their kids. As a teen, I created a website to advocate for animals, especially wild animals. I posted information about different species and people would comment and ask questions. I felt proud of using my voice to help give animals a voice, and I couldn’t have done it without social media.
Because of this blog assignment, I searched myself online to take a look at my virtual footprint. I was surprised that my age, address, and phone number popped up right away, since I try to keep personal information private. I also found that I had a French Instagram account I didn’t know about. But I also found some nice surprises, including pictures of me and my family visiting a school in Kibera, a huge urban slum in Kenya, when I was in 5th grade. I didn’t know the pictures of our visit were online, with my name, but I was glad to see them. I related to these children because I grew up very poor, and ended up in an orphanage in Crimea until I was adopted at age eight and came to America. Over the years, I have been able to find out information about my biological family by following their virtual footprints, since I knew their names, and I have been able to reconnect with them. Social media lets me keep in touch with my biological sister; we are very close.
Still, I feel quite exposed through Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc. I try to protect myself by only accepting “follow” or “friend” requests if I really know the person. I mostly comment on my friends’ posts to encourage them to feel good about themselves, especially if they are going through something negative in their lives. I try to be helpful, even if all I can do is a “like” on social media. I know that Facebook sells my private information to advertisers and others to make money. It’s wrong and it does bother me but so far, nothing bad has happened to me. Maybe that’s because I am a student and I don’t own much of anything, yet! I have considered starting a "fake" Gmail account with fake personal information, but then I worry that might be fraud. So the fear of getting in trouble causes me to be truthful, although they probably have all my information anyway.
If you or a potential employer were to google me, I hope you would see that I am a warm, kind and also a strong person. I try to be true to myself in my posts, rather than creating a false image on social media, though it would be easy to do. And you won’t find foul language. I did post a picture of me holding a drink at my brother’s wedding, but I was 21 by then. I read the recent article saying colleges are revoking offers of admission to students who had posted racial slurs online. It made me think about the first amendment and what rights these students have, although I do not condone racist behavior in any way.
Overall, my relationship with social media so far has been more positive than negative, but I know that could change. I can’t control what others say about me or what pictures of me they post. Anyone could take a video of me on the street without my permission and post it online. In NY where I live, it’s legal to record phone conversations without the other person’s knowledge. I try to be careful but you can’t control everything. We all make mistakes, and with the internet, mistakes can be forever. So excuse me while I go use google translate to check out that French Instagram I discovered.
Picture:
https://www.cnn.com/2016/05/31/opinions/harambe-death-meaning-coppenolle/index.html
Websites:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/02/us/racism-social-media-college-admissions.html
http://redrosechildren.blogspot.com/2009/07/lots-of-love-from-bronxville-elementary.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/outrage-after-gorilla-harambe-killed-at-cincinnati-zoo-to-save-child/
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