REPUTATION

Through my own personal experience, I was using Snap chat and posted a picture of me with a caption saying something about a "food baby" because I had eaten a huge meal. In spite of that post having no deeper meaning, someone who misunderstood sent it around saying I was pregnant with a real baby, which made no sense. Nevertheless, when I posted it, it was innocent, just me saying I had eaten a lot of food. It got blown out of proportion and used against me. Even if you post something with positivity, it can still be interpreted wrong. When you think only your friends can see it, parents have ways of seeing things if they need to. Though in my case it was fine, in about a few weeks the rumor died and no one talked about it, but sometimes these rumors follow you and affect you for so much longer. Therefore be careful what you post on social media because it can possibly change your reputation for the worse.

Posting anything on social media can be a dangerous game. People often try to find anything they can against you, especially with “cancel culture” so popular on social media.  Every little mistake is taken with a grain of salt and people are quick to ‘cancel’ you.  Whether you post something so innocent or not, it can still so easily be altered to a different meaning just like what happened to me. Rumors spread like absolute wildfire. All it takes is one screenshot and everyone around you will have the same picture with a different meaning. Technology being so advanced, things spread much quicker. On apps like Snapchat, messages disappear after being viewed, this makes users believe only one person can see it, which is never the case. You send something to your friends, they show their friends, next thing you know everyone knows about you. With this in mind, you should take time to think through your posts, make sure it can’t be turned bad or misinterpreted so someone can’t ruin your reputation.

You may regret later what you post now, and anything public is almost impossible to delete. When I was little I posted a YouTube video of me being silly, later on when I was older it embarrassed me so I deleted it. Still to this day you can view the videos even after I've assumed them gone. Although these videos haven't ruined my reputation, in some cases, if you do make a mistake and try to delete it, you can’t. Your mistakes will always float around on the internet for the time to come, so it’s best not to not even post them in the first place. If you think it's a good idea at the time, you won’t think so later. Nothing on social media is ever truly deleted. Be careful with everything you post since you won’t ever be able to delete it or even know who sees it. 

Some may say that as long as you don't post anything bad or if you do things privately your reputation will be fine. That is exactly what I thought until rumors spread about me. I thought only a few people were seeing my posts that weren't even bad, until my mom and others had seen them with a completely different context. Even being innocent and private, it doesn't take much to alter with technology.

 Be careful with posting on social media, it can possibly change your reputation for the worse. Everyone should take care of their own image, and how people see them. A good reputation will help you in the future with things like education and jobs. Social media, being so popular, is the perfect place for everything to go downhill quickly. So always think before you post.