Can social media hurt your job?
What if you deleted your social networking accounts – all of them – and never came back, asks Lee Suckling.
Celebrities go on and off social media frequently. Kendall Jenner, who deleted her Instagram account a week ago, is the latest to come crawling back (her page was back up this week).
But what if you deleted your social networking accounts – all of them – and never came back? How would that affect your social life, your view on the world, and, perhaps most importantly, your next job prospects?
We never really think of social media as having much influence on our careers.
Most people live under the guise that they have completely locked-down Facebook pages, private Snapchat accounts, superslick LinkedIns, and cute, harmless Insta-feeds.
Whenever we hear advice about ‘‘why to quit social media’’, it’s normally from non-digital natives. Those who didn’t live and breathe social media in their formative years.
As millennials, however, we’ve spent half of our lives on various social networks. Finally, we’re becoming critical of what all this past online activity could do to our careers (which are finally, after almost a decade of global financial troubles, catching up to where we thought they’d be by now).
In the New York Times this past weekend, millennial computer scientist and blogger Cal Newport wrote:
‘‘There are many issues with social media, from its corrosion of civic life to its cultural shallowness, but the argument I want to make here is more pragmatic: You should quit social media because it can hurt your career.’’
He argues against the ‘‘personal brand’’ mantra that so many of us millennials live by when it comes to online activity, and attempts to debunk the myth that ‘‘many people in my generation fear that without a social media presence, they would be invisible to the job market’’.
I am of the same opinion as Newport. I don’t think all this ‘‘personal branding’’ on ‘‘social’’ is terribly valuable for millennials’ careers.
Take me, for example. Now, to be clear, I lay no claim to being a personal branding expert. I’m a columnist with a voice; a voice that evolves as I live, learn, read, and experience.
I have just the one public social media page which just contains links to all my articles.
There’s no commentary, no rants, no personal photos. I don’t do Twitter or Instagram. I engage with followers via my public Facebook page, but only on positive matters and when I receive constructive criticism – not vilification because somebody doesn’t agree with an opinion piece I’ve written.
In all honestly, I see this as wise on the personal branding front, despite what social media marketers would say.
The only things that can come back and bite me in the bum are stories I’ve had published, which are carefully considered when penning them. More so than any Twitter rant, at least.
See, for those who’ve spent a decade or more on social media, there are bound to be things on there that will one day hurt your career. No, I’m not really talking about photos of drunken nights out. We’re all pretty wised-up about those.
I’m talking about the airing of political views, the public signing of petitions, the check-ins, the comments on others’ controversial posts, the debates on public pages, even the satirical memes.
We can’t see them as problematic now, but history shows us (just look at the recent United States election) that things from 10-20 years ago, seemingly harmless at the time, do come back to haunt you.
Reputations aside, the New York Times’ Newport makes a good point about social media and how wasteful it is of our time, much to the detriment of our jobs.
‘‘Most social media is best described as a collection of somewhat trivial entertainment services that are currently having a good run,’’ he writes.
‘‘These networks are fun, but you’re deluding yourself if you think that Twitter messages, posts and likes are a productive use of your time.’’
As such, he concludes, if millennials are serious about making an impact in the world, we should ‘‘power down [our] smartphones, close [our] browser tabs, roll up [our] sleeves and get to work’’.
Given how much time most millennials have already spent on social media today alone (instead of doing real work), he might just have a point.
Is it wise to get off social media for your career? A minority of opinions say yes.
Whatever the case, I can guarantee you one thing: you’re now about to look back through your old feeds, and see exactly what you’ve forgotten is on there.