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Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and
YouTube, are four of the most popular social media sites that many college
students go on during their free time. According to the Review of Litigation,
Facebook “has over one billion active users” while Twitter has over 500 million
users that produce 340 million tweets each day (McNelis, 2014). While these
websites offer a wonderful channel for college students to express themselves,
they can also get in some hot water based on what they post online which can
hurt their chances of getting that dream job they have always wanted.
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This is a serious problem of itself that
leads me to asking two questions: First, should there be rules and regulations
for what we post on social media? And second, how should we treat online
conversations versus face-to-face conversations with our friends in our
everyday life? Yes, I believe that there needs to be rules and regulations for
how much we are putting out on social media and that we need to treat online
conversations much differently than face-to-face conversations.
The reason why I chose this topic is
because this has been personally affecting me throughout my college years as I
have made friends and lost friends based on how they act on social media and in
real life. I have been very interested in interpersonal communication in a
social media world for quite some time and have been observing people that I
surround myself in my life to see what kind of person they really are and if
they are that same person on social media.
Going back to the questions I’ve asked,
I think that there should be rules and regulations for how much we put out on
social media especially if we are looking for a job or have a job in the real
world. We need to be careful about what we say online and need to follow each
company’s social media policies (i.e. at-will employment) and employers have to
follow government regulations under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
This act allows employers to regulate an
employee’s social media pages under two types of regulations: Section 7, which
“grants all employees, the right to engage in other concerted activities for
the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection” and
each state’s off-duty conduct statues (McNelis, 2014). Off-duty conduct statues
first started as a way to prevent employers from discriminating against
employees that use tobacco products and now that it is almost 2015, I think
that states need to adopt off-duty conduct statues for how employees present
their selves on social media. Employers have a right to have access to an
employee’s social media site and see what happens in their personal lives based
on comments, pictures, and activities posted on their social media pages. Not
only does this statue relies heavily on social media, but can also clearly
define what “recreational activities” are to protect employees from being
discriminated in the workforce (McNelis, 2014).
Employees, on the other hand are
expected to follow the policy of at-will employment. At-will employment means
that an employee can be fired for any reason or for no reason at all. One of
the main reasons why all states follow at-will employment is so that employers
have a right to give employee consequences that may affect their job
performance. Examples of what employees can be fired for via social media are
pictures that depict them using drugs and alcohol, exhibiting dangerous or
questionable behavior on their wall, and writing nasty posts on a co-workers
wall.
Now that you know what rules and
regulations employers and employees must follow for social media use, let’s
move into how people should treat online conversations and real life
conversations.
Like I mentioned before, we (as a
society) need to treat all online conversations much differently than we treat
real-life conversations. This is because most people (including my friends) go
to social media and “overshare” some personal information (i.e. divorce
agreements, wedding planning, break-ups, etc.) rather than talking to a friend,
parent, or a counselor about the problems they are facing. In my opinion, it is
nice to keep in touch with family and friends through the good and the bad
times on social media but I don’t need to know what you ate for breakfast or if
you look really horrible when going to class. I think that the main reason why
people overshare on social media is that they just want attention and need
something to brag about. I’m sorry but telling people to respect you and not
talking about your own personal issues face-to-face is a major turnoff and can
lead you to losing friends both online and in real-life. I think that people
need to use common sense when going on social media because you never know if
your grandma or a potential employer may see something on your Facebook wall
that they do not wish to see.
While the internet may be a place to
support and encourage each other, sometimes it isn’t and in one article that I
read this semester, I was very appalled. Michigan State University professor
Dr. Joseph B. Walther told New York Magazine that “Facebook may have replaced
Disneyland as the happiest place on earth” (2012). This was a slap in my face,
as I don’t know how many social media sites that claim to be the happiest place
on earth. One of the biggest problems of our generation right now is
Cyber-bullying and unfortunately many people that have been affected with
cyber-bullying have also been the victims of depression and suicide as well.
Take for example, the Elonis vs. United
States case that was up for discussion in the Supreme Court back in June
2014 when Anthony Elonis was serving more than three years in prison due to
posting death threats on Facebook. After his wife and two kids left him in 2010
he began writing some dark and disturbing posts in the form of rap lyrics.
According to Slate.com, the rap lyrics that he was referring to were about his
wife, an FBI agent, and even a group of kindergarteners (Lithwick, 2014). What
really disturbed me when reading this was the fact that Elonis was not only
hurting an FBI agent or his wife, but he was also hurting himself when posting
it to Facebook. Another point that seemed hypocritical to me was that he writes
these violent rap lyrics as an expression of art while his wife was claiming
that throughout their seven-year marriage, she rarely saw him listening to rap
music, nor writing rap lyrics as a way to express his anger. So, when did he
cross the line? I think that he crossed the line when he was writing those
nasty lyrics that were referring to his wife and the FBI agent investigating
the case. This situation was in no way, shape or form of art expression because
he not only hurt other people but he didn’t even realize that he was hurting
himself too.
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Based on what I talked about in this
post, we need to use common courtesy when we use social media in our everyday
life. We can block a friend who has said nasty comments or unfriend people that
make us feel very uncomfortable online. Also, businesses need to develop a
social media policy so that employers can make ethical decisions about their
employee’s behavior online. The next time you are posting a video to YouTube,
posting a photo on Instagram, or posting your next status on Facebook; you may
want to think twice about what you put out there because you never know if your
mom, best friend, co-worker, or your current boss or future employer might be
looking at your profile which can lead to serious consequences about your
future career.
Works
Citied:
Heller,
Nathan. "When Did the Internet Get So Nice?" New York Magazine
18 Nov. 2012: 3. Web. 11 Dec. 2014.
Lithwick,
Dahlia. "Are Facebook Threats Real?" Slate Magazine 16 June
2014: 3. Web. 11 Dec. 2014.
McNelis, Kayleigh. "Off-Duty Statutes And Social
Media: The Need For Protection Regardless Of Whether Speech Is Concerted."
Review Of Litigation 33.1 (2014): 219-248. Academic Search Premier.
Web. 15 Dec. 2014.
