Social Media Audit

When Googling my name, much of what I expected came up. The first of which is a link to my advisor bio for Health Sciences North; an introduction of myself and my professional background alongside a headshot. The next few are links to my social media accounts. As a 21-year-old, I am very present online, so the fact that my accounts pop up is not surprising to me whatsoever. There are also links to media articles written about when I represented Ontario for volleyball at the North American Indigenous Games, as well as results from when I participated in singing and figure skating competitions. There is only one link that truly caught me off guard, which is a link to an article about the legalization of cannabis in Quebec. There is a picture of my friends and I from a few years ago in the article. I don’t recall making a statement myself, but my name is included as I am in the picture. I feel as though its unexpected as I don’t necessarily share the same opinion as what is presented in the article, and it now lives forever on the internet.

(Wix 2023)

My social media posts revolve around my life. I have always used discretion when posting, considering the fact that what is online lives online forever; it can never truly be erased. I feel as though my presence on social media is very reflective of who I am. On Facebook, I rarely make my own posts, but am rather tagged in things by my mom or other family members. I do sometimes share events that are happening in my hometown, small businesses, as well as posts that pertain to matters I care about. My settings are public for Facebook and Instagram since I judge my presence to be well-curated and would not mind employers seeing my posts. On platforms like TikTok and Twitter, my accounts are private as I use these platforms for leisure. I don’t make my own posts on these sites since I mainly use them to find funny things and send them to my friends.

(Taciu 2023)

As previously mentioned, I use platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. I more or less have a presence on most of the popular, mainstream sites. I believe as though this is a direct product of my generation, being born in 2001. I grew up online and have never really known a world without the internet. I use social media much more than I should be, and I definitely believe that I should put more emphasis onto diminishing my screen time. As for reporting people, I don’t do so very often. I’ve always seen social media as a place to express myself, and I believe that others have the right to do so as well, even if my opinion or thoughts do not align with what they post. That being said, I have never and will never condone any hatred, violence, and harassment. When I come across such posts, I report them, but I do not interact with them as I’d rather not engage with people that feel the need to post terrible things online.

I'd also like to note that I choose not to follow news outlets as they heavily became a source of anxiety for me. Everything always seemed so negative and overwhelming. This is not to say that I don't keep up with current events, but to have a constant reminder of things that are going wrong in the world was simply unhealthy and I chose to cut it out of my life. Throughout this activity, I also noticed that I don't necessarily have an overtly professional online presence. I will be making it a goal for myself over the course of my degree to work on that aspect of my social media presence as I do believe that it can be a great tool in the networking world.

References

Taciu, R. (2023). Social Media Icons [Image]. Dribbble. https://dribbble.com/tags/social-media-icons

Wix. (2023). Woman Scrolling [Image]. Wix. https://www.wix.com