Social media

Why it’s important to maintain clean social media

TINSLEY MERRIMAN Staff Reporter @merrimantinsley

In the modern age, social media is everywhere. Multiple sites provide people the freedom to say anything. This freedom leads to an important question: why should you keep your social media clean?

Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram allow users to create and share content that is full of personal information and opinions. Through the anonymity of the sites, users can sometimes develop an online persona.

According to Stephen Spates, an assistant professor of communications, people must watch what they send as the virtual can carry over into real life. Presenting oneself in the digital world is just as important as the physical one.

“The ways that we present ourselves on social media can sometimes carry over into actual interactions with people face to face,” Spates said. “So how we present ourselves becomes important. We send a lot of messages through social media, pictures, text, emoji. All of those things matter. The way that they’re organized.” Clean social media provides a positive preview of a person’s profile. Spates gave his definition of clean social media as a post that viewers can engage with and doesn’t have any negative feelings associated with it. “A page or profile that has that content is publicly acceptable,” Spates said. “The wider audience would look at it and be able to engage with it without many issues or feelings of risk.” Many businesses now use social media to advertise and observe future employees. For example, the website LinkedIn is a businessoriented social media platform allowing users to create a profile, follow and connect with different companies.

For this career-driven form of so cial media, Spates recommended LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook accounts. For a more social account, Spates named Snapchat and Insta gram, though these both can also double as business-based as well.

In a Sept. 2019 article, Business Insider recommended tips on how to clean social media for future job offers. Most tips suggested deleting any posts, photos and aliases that are not in line with how you would like to be viewed professionally.