Are your social media pages assets or liabilities?
Audience: College students
By Richard Leon Linfield, Ph.D., with Leilani Darling, J.D.
Do your social media pages give a positive impression of you?
Facebook pages are great places for humor and having fun. Yet pay attention to your page. Does it give a positive image of you? Or is your Facebook page flippant, sarcastic or off-color?
In my English class, Larry showed me a picture on his phone of Bobby Lee, who was also in the class, tearing pages out of his English textbook and throwing them away. Hahaha.
Did you know that potential employers and college admissions officers look at your Facebook pages, as well as your Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest accounts, to see whether you seem like you’d be a committed student or a reliable employee?
Human Resources personnel look at your social media accounts to see if you look like good college material or an employment prospect. This article from a business website explains the do’s and don’ts of Facebook pages for college students who are interested in their careers.
More important than the others for you to have is a LinkedIn account, which resembles a professional resume.
Consider setting up your LinkedIn account and revising your social media pages before you apply for college or for jobs. Follow the following link to see the free one-year student accounts that LinkedIn provides.
Facebook now has a new section named College, designed for college students to communicate with each other on their campus and to learn about services and events their college or university offers. See this article about “Facebook Campus.”
Also, think about the fact that many young people use social media as a replacement for face-to-face contact. How often have you seen a tableful of people sitting together, yet wholly focused on their phones and not speaking with each other?
The lack of person-to-person contact can cause people to lose track of what is most important in relationships, as well as to have less passion and drive and self-respect.
Psychologists say that many young people are sadly unprepared for genuine relationships, and social media takes a large part of the blame. Sociologists say this may be leading to more of a desire for entertainment and distraction rather than for creativity and social responsibility.
How often do you speak with a friend in person instead of via text message or social media? What might you be missing?
A good way to build relationships using social media is to use it to organize projects that help your community. Organize a local project, such as a food drive to help your local food banks. Then spread the news on Instagram. You could start a clothing and shoes drive for your local homeless shelters, which always are seeking such commodities for those who use the shelter.
Remember that many college students spend some time living in homeless shelters, and you can help them with clothing donations, especially warm clothes in the fall and winter. ##### Subscribe to our newsletter: https://upscri.be/f/f2eya1
Richard Leon Linfield, Ph.D. and Leilani Darling, J.D. are a writing team in New Mexico. Linfield is a retired professor. With Darling, he publishes www.SuccessInCollegeStudies.com. Leilani Darling is an attorney and the author of spiritual self-help books such as How to be Happy: The Shocking Truth. She mentors and counsels individuals at www.ConnectWithYourHeartAndSoul.com. #####
