The ‘new’ sex talk: social media safety
Harvard University recently rescinded admission offers for some incoming freshmen who participated in a private Facebook group sharing offensive memes.
Closer to home, 13 Dalhousie University dentistry students who belonged to a controversial Facebook group in 2015 were temporarily suspended from clinical activities.
Those are just a couple of examples that illustrate why it’s crucial to properly manage your online brand. Students are “digital natives” comfortable with technology and apps but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re using social media responsibly, says Angi Roberts, University of Guelph manager of information services in recruitment and admissions.
She offers social media safety seminars to elementary and high school students called ‘Managing Your Digital Identity.’ A seminar for university students —including the Guelph varsity football team — goes by a more provocative title: ‘Preventing a scandal: from crotch shot revenge to criminal charges: how to be in control of your online identity.’
“It’s almost like the new sex talk,” Roberts says of social media safety talks. Many parents hand their kids a smartphone as a rite of passage but even if they’re unfamiliar with the latest apps, they need to help coach their kids about responsible social media use and sharing of personal information.
“They’re wide skills that touch on sexual promiscuity, bullying, misogynist behaviour and racist behaviour. Kids feel like they’re one step removed from the reality of it because it just exists in this device in the palm of their hand until it doesn’t,” says Roberts. With every post, share and tweet, students are creating an online brand, not unlike corporate brands and personal brands such as those carefully honed by stars like Drake and Taylor Swift.
Roberts encourages students to reflect on how much thought they put into their own posts. “It’s about social currency. The more likes, the more shares, the more followers you have, the richer you are. How do you get a maximum number of likes? You put something up that’s provocative, obnoxious or funny at the time but then the next day it’s not so funny anymore. This age group doesn’t think about consequences. It’s all about now — right now, in the now.”
Even when attending college or university it comes back to brands, Roberts reminds. Consider her message to Guelph football students: “You have a responsibility to uphold the brand of the University of Guelph … If you’re going to embrace somebody else’s brand, you can’t drag it through the mud.”
Roberts shares with students even more examples, including a “superstar” student attending university on a scholarship whose co-op interview was cancelled because his prospective employer came across a “highly inappropriate” Twitter comment, and the 21-year-old Liberal candidate who dropped out of the 2015 federal election after offensive tweets she wrote four years prior resurfaced. Then there are the teens who’ve been accused of child pornography offences for sharing photos of their under-18 girlfriends.
But there are benefits to sharing, making positive connections and contributing positively to your data. “When you think about what you posted last week, last month, last year, ask yourself if it still represents who you are. Do you go back and clean it up and think twice about it? Always ask, ‘If I wouldn’t do this in real life, why would I do it online?”
Make sure your brand truly reflects your personality. “That’s who you are and that’s who you want people to think you are — you’re real, you’re approachable, you’re friendly, you’re athletic, you’re academic — whatever it is,” says Roberts. “You have lots of friends, love dogs, like to eat different kinds of food and take pictures of it. That’s all great.
“School wellness is not solely the responsibility of the health or physical education teacher; however, most BEd students in Canada are not provided with any wellness education in their program.”
When you think about what you posted last week, last month, last year, ask yourself if it still represents who you are. Always ask, ‘if I wouldn’t do this in real life, why would I do this online? — ANGI ROBERTS, UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH