ShmoopTube

00:01

We speak student!

00:05

Media Literacy

00:07

Online Safety

00:09

a la Shmoop

00:12

Hi! And we're back.

00:13

Talking with Deb from Shmoop

00:15

about online safety now.

00:17

So, Deb, why should we care about what we post online?

00:21

Why not have those embarrassing photos

00:24

and send them to our employers

00:26

in the future and so on and so on?

00:28

Well, to be honest, sometimes it doesn't matter

00:31

if you post embarrassing photos because no one's gonna see them.

00:33

But you really don't wanna work under that assumption.

00:36

If you are applying for a job,

00:38

you better believe that your future employers

00:41

are going to be Googling you, trying to find you on all social media,

00:44

and seeing if they can find the one picture

00:46

to convince them not to hire you.

00:47

Whether that's a picture of you partying

00:50

or just looking like a slob or an idiot.

00:54

If you turn, say, your Facebook off

00:56

as you're applying for jobs,

00:57

definitely helps, good suggestion there.

01:00

Don't use Facebook, Twitter, et cetera, while you're applying for jobs.

01:04

You never know what employers will think is bad.

01:07

It might be that one employer thinks

01:09

that that picture of you partying

01:11

is fine and another won't,

01:13

so it's better to just turn it all off.

01:16

How deep does this go? So, for example,

01:18

there have been a bunch of legal cases

01:21

about very left-wing companies

01:24

and very right-wing companies making employment hires

01:27

or choosing not to make employment hires

01:29

based on political beliefs.

01:30

How should we think about that

01:31

when posting political beliefs

01:33

and all that? I mean, it's kind of who we are.

01:36

Shouldn't we have the right to say that?

01:37

Is it legal for employers to not hire us because of that?

01:40

Yeah, there's kind of that balance between

01:42

free speech and the right for a private company

01:45

to make decisions based on what they believe.

01:49

Those are things that normally we say,

01:51

"Don't talk about it at a dinner party," right?

01:53

But you probably shouldn't talk about them at work.

01:55

There are other forums to express those ideas.

01:59

And, again, that's why, if you wanna express those ideas

02:01

on social media, go for it. But then when it comes time

02:05

to apply for a job

02:07

or you're doing anything where you might be put in the public eye,

02:10

it's good to turn those off.

02:11

Gotta remember that turning off your social media

02:14

doesn't mean people can't find it.

02:15

It just makes it a lot harder for them to find it.

02:17

So you mentioned finding it.

02:18

What if you post anonymously?

02:20

Is Big Brother really watching us? What if we do post anonymously?

02:25

Well, there's no such thing as anonymous, Dave.

02:28

There really isn't.

02:30

When you post anonymously,

02:31

all you're doing is making it harder

02:33

for someone to figure out who it is.

02:35

So if I go online

02:37

and someone's posting anonymously, I'm probably gonna say,

02:39

"Oh, okay, I don't know who this is." and move on.

02:41

But if someone really wants to figure out who it is,

02:44

they have your IP address.

02:45

They can figure out exactly who you are,

02:47

where you posted it, when you posted it.

02:49

Got it. Okay, makes sense.

02:53

[ whoop ]

02:54

Why should we care about what we post online?

02:58

How should we think about posting political beliefs in social media?

03:03

What happens when you post anonymously?

Full Transcript