I was always brought up by my parents to be aware of the things that can go wrong on the internet, and how explosive it can be. Because of this, I have always been aware of what I posted on social media and made the decision myself, whether or not it was appropriate. Quite often something will come up on my Facebook news feed and I cannot believe what I am seeing, and can’t help but wonder why on earth some people post the things they do.
Social media is very dominant is the current generation. I bet nearly everybody you know has a Facebook account and probably half of them even have a Twitter account, without even mentioning all the other resources there are out there for people to socialise and connect on.
When it comes to the internet and you are in a professional career, you need to be very careful. You have to be mindful of what you post, who you are friends with and who can see your profile without you knowing. GTCS Scotland says, “Teachers therefore need to be alert to the risk that actions which might, on the face of it, seem quite innocent can be misunderstood and misconstrued by others.” Some people are unaware of how far something can go after innocently posting it on social media.
Take this group of women who wanted to have a night out and enjoy themselves, but couldn’t because of the power of social media… http://http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1389292/Disgrace-drinking-pole-dancing-primary-school-teachers-published-pictures-Facebook.html
This proves that as a teacher who uses social media, you must be aware that once it goes online, there is no way of getting it back. You have to think to yourself: do I want everyone to identify me by this photo, as the teacher who is not fit to teach?
After an eye-opening lecture with Derek on internet safety I was taken by surprise by what I saw after I logged in to Facebook and checked out my privacy settings. There was an option on whether you wanted other search engines to link to your timeline. This was automatically turned on, and doesn’t come off unless you are aware it is there, and turn it off yourself. Instantly, your information and photographs are escaping from the Facebook world and without you knowing, your profile is connected with search engines such as Google. I think this is scary as anyone has access to Google, therefore anyone can see your posts. It is frightening how wide the internet can reach and it helps you understand why a lot of people don’t agree with the use of social media.
A lot of people agree with the use of social media and internet in schools, but others don’t. Many frame it as a destroying resource, which may be because we only ever see the negative effects of the internet. You hear lots of horror stories about young people online and this bends your view on social media to it being a complete waste of time and that it shouldn’t exist. People less often talk about how fantastic Facebook, Twitter etc. is, therefore people don’t get the chance to see that they can be useful for many different things.
