My
initial intention was to interview a female teenager, then I decided to get the
male perspective as well. I
interviewed Meg, a 15-year old high school sophomore and Nate, an 18-year old
college student. Both of them have
a phone with them at all times. As
a matter of fact, when I interviewed Meg is was minutes after her basketball
game, and when I started with this question, we both started to laugh because I
saw her phone. Nate always has his
phone and added now that he’s a college student he needs to be able to contact
people for school things or in case of emergencies.
Meg
didn’t really post things in anger about someone through Facebook or
Twitter. She said she has seen it
done many times and it bothers her to see it happen. Nate admitted to making a few posts on Twitter due to anger,
but not about anyone that follows him or that would somehow see it. From the description, the posts seem to
be not related to anyone and he actually felt better after posting them. He said in a way, it relieved the
stress he felt at the moment.
Nate’s description was that it was just some stupid thing that he said
and would have no effect on anyone.”
Both
Meg and Nate felt that there was a line that people can cross, and though they
weren’t together when I interviewed them, they seemed to both feel that it’s
okay to post things as long as it’s not too personal about themselves or others
because that can come back to hurt one’s reputation. Meg saw instances of bullying and felt that is just wrong
because then others get involved and it seems to snowball. Nate felt that one of the benefits of
Twitter v. Facebook is Twitter confines you to 140 characters. It’s not that people can’t be foolish
in that amount of time.
Posting
of inappropriate photos is something that seems to be increasingly happen. One thing I found interesting that Nate
said is that if any of his friends posted obscene photos he would mention to
them that they should take them down – and if they didn’t do it, he would
delete/unfollow them. He feels
that it could come back to haunt them.
But the most important thing to him was, they should have the courtesy
not to post anything bad. He
didn’t feel that is what social media should be about, regardless if people
think it’s okay. Meg said she has
seen photos that she considers inappropriate and thinks it’s “stupid” that
people put them up because it can have an impact on them in the future. It might be the way people view them,
or it could hurt them when applying for jobs or to colleges.
The sharing
of inappropriate photos is not the only area of concern, sharing statuses and
rants/vents via social media can lead to problems. Nate and Meg felt that it can affect people’s chances to get
jobs or promotions, and depending on how severe, can also get them fired; it
can also get students in trouble, particularly with the DASA (Dignity for All
Students) legislation in NYS. Nate
suggested that people should consider making their social media private to outsiders
if they have a tendency to post rants and vents. He feels that companies do have a right to fire people (or
not hire them) because they can defame the company’s name.
There
are a lot of upsides to social media.
It connects people of similar interests, keeps friends and family in
contact whether they are in the same house or across the world. Another benefit is the power of the
good, the ability to share and promote information about events such as
fundraisers. They have both seen
many examples of this. It seems to
work well.
Interviewing
both Nate and Meg was interesting to hear their viewpoints on social
media. They shared some
interesting perspectives. At this
point, they both seem to have a handle on the proper use of social media.
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