How social media can ruin your life
On one dull
Sunday afternoon, I logged onto Facebook and visited the timelines of some of
my Facebook friends.
I found all
kinds of posts. One posted a series of a selfies of herself in a bikini lying
on sand. Another had posted pictures of her engaging in PDA (Public Displays of
Affection) with her boyfriend and captioned it “I love this man to death.”
And, I just
went, “oh really, does she?” I recalled a time this same girl had previously
posted something about the man not treating her right She had branded him a
serial cheat. The guy called her lazy, immature and irresponsible.
Suddenly,
she was posting lovey dovey pictures of them holding hands, hugging and locking
lips. As I was going through the comments, I stumbled upon one that read “Have
you two stopped fighting and are now back on?”
The whole
thing left me speechless. I wondered, “What happened to keeping some things
about our lives away from social media?”
I was
perturbed by yet another post on another friend’s page.
The man
posted a complaint about his boss. He described him as exploitative,
manipulative and discriminative.
Someone
begged him to delete the post out of fear that his boss might come across it
and take action. The man became indifferent and went on ranting.
The last
time I saw the post, it had over 100 comments. One of them was him saying he
had resigned from the job as he could no longer entertain his boss’ behaviour.
TARNISH YOUR
BRAND
“If you post
something that also makes you uncomfortable or think twice, it has the
potential of tarnishing your personal brand,” says Michael Niyitegeka, an
Information and Communications Technology consultant.
Niyitegeka
adds that in case your social media profile is public, be extra careful with
the kind of information you decide to share.
“This is
because whatever you post can be accessed by members of the public and anything
you think the public will not relate not be posted,” he explains.
It has been
discovered recently that some employers take time to investigate the social
media accounts of potential employees.
If they came
across any posts or pictures they believe will damage the reputation of their
company, they do not risk hiring you.
Janat
Zawedde is one such person whose social media posts made her lose a job
opportunity at one of the corporate firms in town. The 28-year-old is
accustomed to posting pictures of herself in nightclubs having fun with friends
either dancing or drinking.
“I found
three female panellists on the day of the oral interview. One pulled out her
phone and showed me a picture I once posted on my Facebook page lighting a
cigarette and asked if I was the one,” Zawedde says, adding, “I timidly
answered yes and she placed the phone back in the bag.”
The mother
of one says the incident was very embarrassing as she wanted the world to
swallow her after seeing the picture. Two weeks later, she learnt that someone
else had been hired for the position.
Moses
Ssesanga, the human resource manager at Monitor Publications, says social media
defines who the person is and how they want to be perceived. What someone posts
is a reflection of who they are.
“You will
not join a company with that baggage that you have been posting either with
irresponsible or irrational comments. Surely, a responsible company will not
take you on,” Ssesanga states. He advises that if one wants their brand to be
good, then they should protect it by making responsible posts.
Patricia
Kahill, a freelance social media consultant, content creator and marketer at
Kahill Insights, explains that someone can brand themselves on social media
depending on the reason they are on the platform in the first place.
“Some people
are online because they want to create some fun while others are there to work.
The way someone chooses to portray themselves online becomes their brand,” she
says, adding: “Social media is a wide platform that one can use for marketing
themselves or businesses in all sorts of ways.”
Decide how
you intend to use social media and to whom you will allow access, especially on
Facebook. You don’t necessarily need to completely sanitise all your social
media profiles — because companies want to hire real people, and some companies
specifically look for creativity and personality.
However, if
you want to ensure a potential employer does not reject you on those grounds,
make sure your online social profile depicts the type of employee a company
would want to hire.
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