On My Honor, Being a Digital Citizen

For the most part, digital citizenship for me, reflects both my personal and professional life equally. I would never post or say anything online that I would not do in person. With that being said, I have never (purposefully) posted anything to hurt someone's feelings because I know how it feels and do not want anyone else to feel that way. If I have posted anything embarrassing of one of my friends, they have never asked me to take it down and if they have I would have no problem doing it.

There have been plenty of pictures from high school that my friends have tagged me in that I have asked for them to take down, not because I was doing anything bad, but the picture was just plain embarrassing! (usually me dancing at a dance or being silly). As an adult and now looking back at it I can laugh and think to myself "why was I so weird" or "why did my friends hangout with me!?" Although my picture that I am tagged in are just harmless fun like dancing or making a weird face. There are some teens who have pictures of them underage drinking or other things that may be frowned upon. As these teens grow up I hope that they take into consideration if this picture would hurt them when landing that dream JOB. For me, since there were some people who do not think about that, I make sure to have all of my social media on private so that I am able to approve anything that someone tags me in before it gets posted to my page.

Although no one has ever posted anything to hurt my feelings, I have had several of my friends post some things that make me go "did they really post that?" which usually results in 50+ comment section of people arguing over what was posted. And that is a big reason why some people are good to just be friends on social media and social media only. If they are able to post some ignorant, argumentative thing online, who knows what they would say in person and I do not want to be around if/when it happens.When it comes to posts that I consider ignorant, offensive, rude or something someone could have just kept to themselves I tend to just lay low and watch things unfold. Such as someone getting offended and lashing out, which will result in possibly calling someone out of their name therefore resulting in more drama. Personally, I want nothing to do with that so I keep to myself and just read the argument.

I tried to keep my personal and professional lives separated, but once you hit college that is hard to do. Why? Because employers love to google and search to see if you are a good fit for their company. Luckily for me, my mom was very big on teaching me from a young age that what you do on social media or even in life could get back to someone and effect you for the rest of your life. So with that, I was very mindful about what people posted or had me tagged in.

When it comes to fear, my fear is that someone may take a picture I am tagged in or a status I post the wrong way. That is the problem with social media, everything can be taken out of context even if you meant nothing by it. Your post could just be something that was on your mind all day or even what you were feeling at that specific time. But that innocent post could take a downward spiral if the wrong person sees it. The problem that children and teens face with social media is the fear of getting picked on or made fun of because of something that they were excited to share with their social media world. Growing up, I did not have this fear because bullying and teasing took place in person. Today's students not only have to worry about being bullied in school but outside of school as well. This makes it harder for teachers to incorporate technology in classrooms. As educators, we must teach students how to be good citizens both in the real world and the digital because anything you post online can be found and used against you.