Does Social Media Mean Social Suicide?

A few years ago, when I was a senior in High School, I got a Facebook. At first I didn’t post much, and I primarily used it to “creep” on my classmates. Shortly after the fascination of creeping wore off, I began making myself more noticeable on Facebook. It quickly became fun posting photos, wall posts, and commenting on other people’s profiles. Because I was in High School, I wasn’t posting anything inappropriate, just pictures of my friends and I goofing off.

But when I got to college, it was a completely different story. Instead of taking the high school-ish pictures, it was a different scene. Pictures were now at parties. And at these parties, there was drinking

I truly did not think anything of it. I figured I was only a freshman in college, and I had plenty of time to worry about privatizing my Facebook for an employer.

It was until I got my first internship at WTAE in Pittsburgh when I realized just how important a journalist’s privacy is. Thankfully, I was smart enough to have the settings on my Facebook all set as private. Some interns were not as lucky.

A couple of us were sitting there in the newsroom one day when one of the producers said he was going to look us all up on Facebook. I instantly panicked and thought about all my drinking photos that I had right on my homepage. How stupid could I have been? Well, it was too late to do anything about it now.

Fortunately, my Facebook was not accessible because of the privacy settings, but another intern’s was. She had the same type of photos that I had – and they were visible to everyone. The utter embarrassment on her face as the producer clicked through her photos was enough for me to delete every photo I ever put on the Internet.

When it comes to social media, Journalists are held at a much higher standard. Sure, everyone drinks and everyone parties time to time, but when a person is in the public eye, it is completely necessary to alter his or her online behavior.

It may not be fair, but it is a price we have to pay as Journalists. In the public spotlight, it is essential to be objective and filter your own personal social media tools.