Freedom of speech had both exploded in the form of social media to be the most available than ever. But on the same token it has been the most suppressed it has ever been. I am slowly becoming more prominent on social media, I have Twitter, Facebook and I'm on YouTube. I write this blog allowing me to express my options to the world to those who will take the time to read it and I can express anything I want-but that's what scares me.
I don't think it's a positive thing that we now have the ability to write a tweet in the matter of seconds of an idea popping into your head-some ideas need more thorough consideration.
Humor is humor. There is some humor that is funny to some and then there is humor that is funny for all. Gone are the days that you tell a joke to someone and you have one person tell you that they're offended. Now if you tell one joke you can get 3.2 million people telling you they're offended. Do you remember that one really sensitive kid in elementary school that you would look at the wrong way and they would have their hand up telling on you to the teacher? Now picture a whole cyberspace filled with those people. One split second of misjudgment can ruin your entire life- and this terrifies me.
Now we live in a society that we must think, rethink and think again before we post anything-which is not necessarily a bad thing. Because of this it has made me a paranoid social media member. I overthink everything before I post it and even then it may not post it live.
The horror stories of one misguided tweet that turns viral and ruining said persons life by them losing their career and reputation is enough to convince me to go dark among all social platforms. It's an everyday struggle I have, part of me would love to go dark on everything public, but because of my career in acting and writing it's not possible. Networking is key I'm told and in this day and age- networking isn't possible without every single social media platform.
Social media has the power to create buzz and build you up and it has the power to absolutely destroy you in the same beat. One thing should not have that much power.
So I say, always air on the side of caution. Don't post anything you wouldn't mind your boss reading-that's my golden rule. Whether you think so or not, you're on display to the world from one click of the mouse and once something is on the Internet- it's on the Internet for good; there's no hiding from Google.
Practice safe tweets,
Brianna
