The Arab Spring was a political uprising in 2011 in the Middle East. There have been studies done to show that the influence of social media on sites such as Facebook and Twitter across the USA influenced people in other countries in the Middle East to think more seriously about democracy and freedom. Twitter showed the highest number of posts regarding uprisings and revolutions to prove that democracy and freedom are on the minds of people in these areas just as it is for the people of the United States. Posts grew in numbers from mere thousands to hundreds of thousands in a very short time period just on Twitter alone. YouTube also played a critical role with videos going viral in a very short period of time which were also proof that this is what the people of these countries hungered for.
(O'Donnell, 2011)
Lindsey Stone was fired over a picture she posted on her Facebook page. Is it fair for 30,000 individuals, most of them probably strangers, to have the power to determine the course of an individual's life and livelihood based on one poor choice made on a social networking site?
I do not agree with employers getting into the personal business of their employees. They should not be "trolling" their Facebook pages looking for something to fire them for. If a customer or someone who was threatened or offended by a post made, I believe it can be brought up to the employee but firing should not be an option. It is a very fine line on this thought however because in this day and age everyone is offended by something and they know they can use it to hurt people and get their way. This world has become entirely too sensitive and unfortunately it is used in a selfish manner. In Lindsey's case, this photo should not have been brought up to her employer as it is her personal business. Beyond that we are protected by freedom of speech and protest so if this was something she felt she wanted to do by "disrespecting" the Arlington National park, then she has the right constitutionally.
(Sieczkowski, 2012)
Your online reputation can make or break you. In fact, college admissions officers and prospective employers look at your digital presence. Do you monitor your digital presence? Can you get rid of your digital footprint? Research and provide tips for managing your online reputation.
I personally often forget to monitor my Facebook. I do not subscribe to Twitter and I do not post to YouTube etc. I do occasionally forget that I can not get rid of the things I have posted however I do have a profile which is not searchable or readable by anyone who is not my friend. I believe this is important, I also have my daughter's account set-up this way.I do think it is important to have a professional page such as Linked-In. This can be something to point potential employers or college admins to without putting your personal life out there for them to see. There is not a true way to get rid of your footprint. Unfortunately even if you delete something it can be cached by Google and Facebook will always have it available on their servers. Once it is out there it can never disappear. There are a couple good ways to help monitor your online rep without having to think about it daily. Google has a personal data alert for people who have accounts with them. There are also companies like reputations.com and Technorati who will monitor this for you 24/7. These are paid services though so you must have a serious commitment to needing to be monitored in order to use those. I personally would not pay when I am not employed or worried about anyone searching me.
(O'Donnell, n.d.)
References
O'Donnell, C. (2011, September 12). New study quantifies use of social media in Arab Spring | UW Today. Retrieved November 23, 2014, from http://www.washington.edu/news/2011/09/12/new-study-quantifies-use-of-social-media-in-arab-spring/
O'Donnell, A. (n.d.). How to Monitor and Protect Your Online Reputation. Retrieved November 23, 2014, from http://netsecurity.about.com/od/advancedsecurity/a/Protecting-Your-Online-Reputation.htm?utm_term=your%20online%20reputation&utm_content=p1-main-1-title&utm_medium=sem&utm_source=msn&utm_campaign=adid-f6f33ac5-4005-4cb7-9bd4-e4f2205c9b35-0-ab_msb_ocode-4516&ad=semD&an=msn_s&am=broad&q=your%20online%20reputation&dqi=&o=4516&l=sem&qsrc=999&askid=f6f33ac5-4005-4cb7-9bd4-e4f2205c9b35-0-ab_msb
Sieczkowski, C. (2012, November 20). Lindsey Stone, Plymouth Woman, Takes Photo At Arlington National Cemetery, Causes Facebook Fury. Retrieved November 23, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/20/lindsey-stone-facebook-photo-arlington-national-cemetery-unpaid-leave_n_2166842.html
Regards to question 2:
ReplyDeleteThough I said something completely different about this question, I see where your going and I can completely agree with you. I said that if one posts a bad comment or picture making fun of their company, they should be fired. But, once I read your post, I can honestly say you have changed my mind. I do agree that a company doesn't need to "troll" your facebook page to find something to take advantage of you. Because of this, the people in this world will get scared of posting the simplest things on their facebook because they think they might get fired for it. I can agree with you that you said this world is becoming "too sensitive." -Brad
I agree with you about how twitter is an uprising social media that is causing revolutions about democracy and freedom. In a way it is good for certain countries but it can also influence bad behaviors in other countries. I hardly get on social networks therefor I don't see these kind of things. I hear about them from friends who have twitter and get on Facebook everyday, but I just cant stand how all social networks are drama filled and clearly announce issues that everyone feels to share. I guess it is important to the government and brings attention to how their people feel about certain issues but I just think its all nonsense.
ReplyDelete-Rachel Pritchard