SELF-PROMOTION ON SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS
Tressela Bateson, MA EPS Administrator Tressela lives in Virginia. She is a graduate of CSUN and Gallaudet University.
A
s a practice profession, interpreters have a paramount need for continuous, conscious examination of their work. The RID Code of Professional Conduct (CPC) is the bedrock of decision-making for interpreters throughout the nation. Authors of the current CPC, written in 2005, had no idea of the social media flood to come, and today, there is a disintegration of professional integrity and the desire to exist on social media.
getting things done right. These traits, are ideal for interpreters, especially when responsible for facilitating communication in a variety of life events. The satisfaction of such work lies in adequately meeting the objectives of facilitating communication successfully and seeing, a client’s name in marquee lights rather than one’s own. Unlike spoken language interpreters, visibility is required for sign language interpreters to perform their jobs. However, professionalism and expectations from Deaf individuals are that interpreters should be “silent” participants in communication exchanges. Yet interpreters have become increasingly visible in media and social media, which seems to have been prompted further by the COVID19 pandemic where public health information dissemination brought interpreters to the forefront. There has been an influx of social media posts featuring interpreters, most recently riding on the sensationalism of Oscar-winning film CODA along with other films and appearances such as Deaf U, Audible, and so forth.
We live in a world where self-promotion equates existence for many, especially younger generations. In other words: if you are not publicizing your success, you are not successful. However, there is a group of individuals who define success and find satisfaction without the need for recognition. These individuals, according to David Zwing (2021), find satisfaction in meticulousness, savoring great responsibility, and seeking only internal satisfaction. These create a trifecta of traits—a near antithesis of our societal ethos of insouciant attention-cravers—that we’d all do well to follow.
While increased visibility of ASL in the media and the provision of sign language interpreters is certainly welcome, eyebrows are often raised when an interpreter posts a selfie on Instagram or makes a
Invisibles don’t shy away from responsibility; they thrive on it. They know that people rely on their labor, and they are committed to 24
