Jackson 1 Krishana R.

Jackson March 27, 2013 Exploratory Essay

Look at me; dont judge me. In March of 2012 I was honored to be a participant of a Public Leadership Education Network (PLEN) program that allowed me to spend my spring break in Washington, D.C. PLEN is a nonprofit organization that offers programs that include workshops, speakers, simulations and informational sessions for a week for college educated women. The mission of PLEN is to educate college women on public servant careers and give us confidence that we will be able to obtain a career in politics. However, the first session we attended when we arrived in D.C. was the most pivotal of the program for me and the most nerve wrecking; one that I remember very clearly. The session was on building your personal brand and maintaining a professional and appropriate online identity. As soon as the speaker began to talk about all of the things that we as aspiring young women and professionals should NOT be doing on social networks or online in general, you can imagine that I sat there with an awestruck, uh-oh face. Of course I had fallen victim to cursing online while chatting with my friends. And of course I had engaged in inappropriate conversations when pictures like this (insert crazy photo from Facebook) pop up on my newsfeed. Who hasnt? Lastly, among all else, the speaker was instructing us that as women we are scrutinized much more than men, and that being young does not help either. On top of all of this I had been learning about feminism and had become slowly intrigued, then finally a proud

Jackson 2 supporter. The curiosity overcame me. And if youre wondering, yes, I did immediately clean up my social network sites! Consequently, no one told me when Myspace first came out, no one told me when Facebook first came out, no one told me when Twitter first came out that what I post would follow me forever and is available for anyone to look at and judge me over. You would think the inventors of these sites would put a disclaimer out: ATTENTION: you are responsible for every word, every post, every photograph you post on this site. It is liable to haunt you forever. But they did not and they will not because that will deter people from using their sites. Plus, where is the fun in being appropriate and reserved? It is up to us, as aspiring professionals to warn each other and the younger generation of all of the things working against us without us even knowing! So, this left me with the unanswered question: how are we: women, men, students and professionals affected by social networking?

Yea Im on Facebook, so what! First, let me give you some background on my presence on Facebook and Twitter (Twitter being my favorite). I have had a Facebook since 2007, my vigorous activity arose in 2008 when I began partying and hanging out with my friends, as well as cheerleading and gaining more friends. In introspect, I realized that I had no filter when it came to things I posted on Facebook. At times, like most high school students, I went through these dramatic periods when my boyfriend and I would argue or I gained and lost friends; on Facebook is where I would vent about these things. Embarrassing, I know, it happens to the best of us. In 2011 I had the most activity on Facebook due to my senior status in high school. 2011 was a competition to see who had the best senior year of high school so my friends and I constantly posted anything and

Jackson 3 everything. Now, in 2013 my Facebook friends may get a status update every 3 months and picture every 6. The excitement has left Krishana Jacksons Facebook. Since, my decline in activity I have been introduced to the idea of being professional on my social networks, so that is a main reason that I have stopped posting so frequently. I figured the less I post, the less of a chance I have of posting something I may regret later. As a woman, one who others think very highly of, I cannot post pictures and comments that do no not represent me in a respectable manner, but since I have been in college I have not had the effrontery to even participate in inappropriate things on Facebook. Lets be serious, who is going to take me seriously if I update my status and say, I have grown into a mature, respectable and goal-oriented young woman and I cannot wait for my career to kick off after college. How many people would take my word for that statement if I posted pictures of me going to bars with barely any clothes on or cursing all over my profile? No one? Oh, thats what I thought. Moving on to Twitter. Twitter is something of a phenomena because of the constant, fast paced posting it encourages. Not only do we see what our followers are up to throughout the day, but we also see jokes progress, stories progress, trending topics, and pictures; that is what fascinates me. I have had my Twitter since 2009. My first assumption of Twitter was that whatever you tweeted had to be funny because the object of the site is to get retweets. My idea of being funny, or at least the community in which I existed in, was inappropriate, profanity, and jokes. I now know that being inappropriate is not the only way to be funny, but back then I did not understand that. When I began using Twitter I cursed and laughed about it, posted pictures all the time, and constantly updated my followers on my every move and emotion. Yet again, embarrassing I know! Now, think back to the PLEN example from earlier envision my face FRAKING OUT when the speaker started naming every wrong thing to do on social networks

Jackson 4 each one I had done in some way! Of course immediately after the session I went back to my hotel room and found every tweet I could get my hands on and deleted it! Currently my Twitter consists of political happenings, inspirational quotes, dry humor on work and class, all things that represent me much more than profane humor. Just like my Facebook I have to maintain a professional appeal.

Private pictures, party pictures explain Facebook. People post the most obscene photos and comments on Facebook and Twitter. On a personal level people post pictures of them and their significant others in intimate settings. Professionals sometimes post of their salary earnings. And we all have posted party pictures whether the pictures were of an office Christmas party, your dogs birthday party, or (the most popular) the Project X party, all still parties. This explains Facebook. Some of the above mentioned pictures do not need to be posted, some things are not for the world to see; yet and still we still want to and do post these photographs online. Since the tidbit of advice I received stating not to be vulgar or disrespectful online I find myself posting pictures that really tell a story of my life; pictures that really represent the ideas and activities I believe in. My last four profile picture on Facebook are of me supporting Rock the Vote, a nonprofit organization that promotes and takes action in civic engagement, me at the Charlotte 49ers football field house, me and my little sister at her 5th grade graduation, and a classmate and I supporting an event called Women Going Places. All of these photographs represent me in different ways: being family orientated, having school pride, supporting women and campus involvement, and most importantly advocating for civic engagement which pertains heavily to my future career.

Jackson 5 As a direct example of pictures representing you online, the article GOP blogs post racy Ball photos retells the story of Krystal Ball. In 2007 during Congressional races in Virginia social media took a low blow. Krystal Ball is a young woman who ran for Congressional office, only to be blind-sided by personal photos of her and her husband at a costume party six years prior which were posted by supporters of the opposing party on a blog. After the incident, Ball remarked on her Facebook, of course I am embarrassed by these photos, that was the whole point of these political operatives when they put them up. Ball commented about this situation on her Facebook as a way to personalize and take ownership of the situation which left no unanswered questions to those wondering. Ball goes on to say in an interview how, she thinks that female candidates are unfairly held to a different standard; meaning that just because she is a woman these pictures meant so much more for her personal identity (Davis). Facebook allowed Ball to comment for herself, and not let the media define her or put words in her mouth, and this is where Facebook can be a positive tool. This type of situation is exactly what we were warned about at the PLEN session. This situation directly relates to my career endeavors and young people in college everywhere. Right now we are young. These are the things we do, but we have to be careful to not give people anything to hold over our heads after the partying is done.

Personal versus professional, wheres the balance? (LinkedIn example here)

As you can see there are so many outside factors that have the ability to control different aspects of our lives. Simply hanging out with friends, making comments, and having online profiles can determine the identity that follows you. It is our responsibility to be responsible and respectable

Jackson 6 when creating our personal identities both in everyday life and online. Being active on sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook can have negative and positive outcomes, but we control how we interact on these sites. To end, always be conscious of the way you present yourself and remember that we are all affected by our personal identities whether we are women or men, young or old, students or professionals. So here is my disclaimer: Dont forget to be discreet when you tweet!

Jackson 7 Works Cited Marwick, Alice E., and Danah Boyd. "I Tweet Honestly, I Tweet Passionately: Twitter Users, Context Collapse, And The Imagined Audience." New Media & Society 13.1 (2011): 114133. Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 Apr. 2013.

Chen, BY, and J Marcus. "Students' Self-Presentation On Facebook: An Examination Of Personality And Self-Construal Factors." Computers In Human Behavior 28.6 (n.d.): 20912099. Social Sciences Citation Index. Web. 1 Apr. 2013.

Davis, Chelyen. "GOP blogs post racy Ball photos." Free Lance-Star, The (Fredericksburg, VA) 07 Oct. 2010: Points of View Reference Center. Web. 1 Apr. 2013

Roberts, Sherry J., and Terry Roach. "Social Networking Web Sites And Human Resource Personnel: Suggestions For Job Searches." Business Communication Quarterly 72.1 (2009): 110114. Business Source Complete. Web. 1 Apr. 2013.

Jackson 8 Krishana, Brilliant introduction! I loved that you shared your experience in D.C. with us, spoke on how women are more susceptible to fall victims of scrutinizing than men, and how that experience affected you. This allowed the reader to know exactly why you chose this particular topic and the impact it has had on your own life. You use a very relaxed and relatable tone throughout the entire paper which was great for keeping the reader engaged. I loved the use of subtitles and thought they were very relatable to your topic and all served a purpose. I also liked that you told us the negative effects of your social networking use prior to PLEN, and turned it into a positive by showing how you uplifted yourself by changing the types of pictures and posts on your page. You managed to be humorous and light while still sounding very knowledgeable and intelligent which is a hard thing to balance so great job! I dont have many suggestions besides maybe adding some more research like the Krystal Ball example you included. Are there statistics that you could include to show social networking leading to anxiety, depression, or even suicide? I think that would be interestingmaybe a story on a child who committed a crime or suicide based off of online posts. This is just a suggestion on thinking outside the box of maintaining professionalism through social networking which you spoke a lot about. Overall I wouldnt be worried; youve done wonderful so far!