Anyways, this is another piece about social media, but this time about how someone could use it to get work for themselves after college, as well as what risks and benefits exist in its use. Interesting topic that I enjoyed writing about, though to further its confusion in the initial writing, I was told it had a word limit of 1600, when in fact it had a minimum of 2000. Honestly? Maybe I'm just not meant to get this one... but it still exists for y'all to read, so please do! See you tomorrow at eight AM for more.
Social Media - Job Leverage by Mackinley Clevinger, March 29, 2016
Social media has come to prominence in our technology-rich civilization as a means to easily connect individuals to one another and the wider world around them when ordinary means would not allow for such interaction; anyone with a tablet or computer can broadcast a message to the entire world with ease, the question now only whether or not anyone will listen to what you say. The capability for anyone at any age to, at virtually any time or place, be able to publicly display the only persona strangers will know them as – an image they can carefully craft with as much time as they wish – gives us the unprecedented ability to control our image and the future it brings us within the world, the mistakes of our past and anecdotes that may tarnish our image never to be known by a distant and future employer or colleague because we can carefully cut around those moments of our past and sing only of our victories and exploits that we’re proud of.
When we, the young and studious, first leave the world of early education that we existed within for the entirety of our lives up until that point, we have no presence in the physical wider world, only known locally around our hometowns and schools. Many people, after their secondary education, will go to college or university, and it is here that we begin to branch out and make a name for ourselves; we’ve left the nest, so to speak, and entered an entirely new culture filled with strangers from all around the world. We’re learning skills that are the very thing future employers are looking for in us, and many students attending post-secondary institutions will perform internships or be hired on over the summer in-between semesters to make a name for themselves and garner experience. It is from these kinds of experiences and interactions that many people will find work after their college or university experience, but an easily overlooked factor in all of this is how people got those internships and early-work experiences. Students are not simply picked up out of the classroom and delivered to a prospective employer, or fast-passed to the lab to work over the summer; they have to get themselves to these places somehow.
To continue using these two people, let us say that each possesses a Facebook account through which they have been able to establish contact with the employer, who can only hire on one person. Supposing that they have similar qualifications, considering that both are still engaged in an educational facility, the deciding factor could come down to parsing through the two peoples’ histories as they have allowed to exist. There lies a danger here for anyone possessing such a public account, because anything they say or do, unless expressly and completely removed from the internet, will be available for anyone to see. Among your friends, this may be no issue; they were likely involved in any hijinks, and an old post would bring up fond memories of your hell-raising days; but for the individual deciding whether or not to hire you, a history of drunk selfies or lewd comments would make for a very poor public image, hindering the likelihood of your being hired. On the other side of this, a carefully cultivated public image that tries to shine a very positive image on yourself could backfire if such is not the case upon you actually being hired, creating an issue of trust between you and your employer and perhaps making future engagements difficult when the person writing your letter of recommendation has felt like they’ve been made the fool for believing in a lie you told them.
It is no question that social media allows us much more freedom in communication and sharing information among comrades and strangers, as well being a signifier of what kind of social clout we hold due to the existence of such statistics as ‘followers’ and ‘likes’ on the aforementioned platforms of Facebook and Twitter. These kinds of values can tell us whether or not someone is whistling in the wind or singing in a packed stadium, the achievement of popularity something much payed attention to when deciding somebody’s worth in the world and to your institution that is looking to hire. Quite simply, an established fan-base for somebody’s thoughts or produced works will add to their public image, giving it the depth of having had a group come together, review their work, and say together that it is worth their time and effort to stick around for more from this person. The numbers may not accurately represent inherent worth, but it is no lie to say that someone with a thousand fans that greedily devour their every work has succeeded more than the person to whom no one listens. The latter may be deserving in recognition, but an employer is unlikely to go in-depth in an examination into these matters and will immediately assume that person A, with a thousand dedicated supporters, is quite likely more qualified than person B, with no one standing behind them.
However, it is important to note that no matter how strong this social resume may be, if you are incapable of delivering upon the promise your persona made, then it will all have been for naught once the word is out about your lack of expertise, work effort, or whatever else may have painted a poor image of you. Social media may play a part in getting you a job by allowing for quick and rapid communication with a prospective employer far away and giving us the ability to ‘fix’ the first meeting between our image and the rest of the world, but no amount of followers, social clout, or impressive resume will make up for shoddy work. It would be all too easy to believe in the white-lie we tell when we make a digital persona built of our best characteristics and lacking in flaws, disregarding our faults and obtaining a swollen head from the words of encouragement and praise we hear from the internet, only to have this entire charade crash to a halt when we have to socialize and manage our affairs outside of the digital realm, and are unable to pre-prepare our interactions and appearance when we have to meet face to face. It’s important to remember that social media, when used for the means of obtaining work and not entertainment, is simply a tool, and that the important aspect is not how shiny or complex that tool is, but in how we use it to further our interests.
When we leave behind the tutorial-world that we grew up in and enter something far more difficult and complex, either higher education or straight to the job market, social media will be useful for all of us, from advertising a small business to making a name for ourselves that can be easily searched up. In the first few years we spend in university or college, we’ll be making connections and trying to exert influence onto the digital landscape to create our own space, a space we decorate and build upon to impress future employers or colleagues. Early attempts at using this space to obtain work and opportunities will teach us better ways to do it, and hopefully enhance how the world sees us for that day after we graduate, when we’re resting on our laurels, and the realization suddenly pops into our head that today was the first day of the rest of our life, and we don’t have a job yet. Our persona, the digital person that is similar but so far-gone from our true selves; that is what the world sees first of us, and through social media’s myriad uses, that is how we are going to obtain work for ourselves in a world that is, without a doubt, one bound to technology.