Social Media is great. It allows you to connect with friends and family. It allows you to watch endless cat videos on Facebook. It makes sending ugly selfies with cool filters on Snapchat possible. But should social media affect your work or school life? This has been a question since the start of social media. One side defends freedom of speech, while the other side defends reputations of companies and schools. Our social media accounts are what we make of them.
Unfortunately, people can take advantage of accounts in the wrong way. In August 2014, Police Chief Mike Yates lost his job over Facebook posts. He called out a journalist at a newspaper and said untrue things about her and bashed her on Facebook for the world to see. The controversy caused people to lose trust in him. Yates later resigned over the scandal. Should this have affected his work life? Yes.
Social media is meant to be fun. But someone who posts a lot about partying and beer probably will not maintain a job for a Christian company. That is okay because it is the company's choice. Social Media should affect work life to an extent. It is your First Amendment right to post whatever you want. But don't except that employers won't look at your account.
Here's a hypothetical situation. Let's say you have two candidates for a job. They went to similar universities, had similar involvement, and similar grades. You decide to check their accounts on social media. Candidate One has a pretty good social media presence. It's not perfect, but for the most part is pretty good. As you scroll through the second candidate's social media, you notice drug references and degrading posts about peers. So, who are you more likely to hire? Who do you want in your workplace?
Some Jonesboro public figures have added a new bio to their Twitter accounts. That is, "All thoughts are my own." Region 8 reporter and Anchor Allison Munn added this to her Twitter account. This allows someone to post company-related tweets, with a personal flare. This doesn't mean that they can make untrue accusations or threaten people. This is the extent that we should take social media. It is important to be professional and have a personal flare. No one is perfect, but it is important to speak your mind in an appropriate way.
So should social media affect your work or school life? The world may never know. This issue is ultimately up to a company or university to decide. So remember, in the words of Ellen DeGeneres, "Be kind to one another."
