How much should you share on social media?

“Social Media is no longer an esoteric environment; it has now become the heart of the lives of individuals.”

The above quote suggests that many modern individuals no longer use social media to reflect a small amount of their daily lives, but rather choose to live through their social media accounts with a persona. Being yourself is very important and being your best self is just as vital. But what exactly should the relationship between our online presence and real life be?

In the techno-thriller, The Circle a young woman named Mae Holland manages to attain the role of an employee at a well-known Tech company called The Circle, due to being good friends with an influential employee, Annie Allerton.

The relationship between your “real life within the physical world” and your “digital pseudo life within the digital world” should be simple. One should share some interests with the world, as this can be helpful to others. An example of this is when Mae had not yet set up her online profile and her collages told her that she was not helping herself by doing this, as many love seeing what their co-workers have as interests, and many circlers engage with each other. Mae’s fellow co-worker expressed his disconcert for her not stating that she enjoys kayaking on the profile, as he believes her behaviour is somewhat antisocial, as he would have enjoyed kayaking with her. This tells us that social media can be helpful, as it can bring people together.

 However, one should not share too much with the world. According to (Citroën, 2017), one should not post news about others online without their consent, as this may cause damage to their reputation or make an negative impact on their online and real life presence. In the movie, after sharing a photograph of a chandelier that Mercer made that hung in her parent’s house, others began accusing him of cruelty towards animals and she shared the photograph without his consent.

Sharing on social media can also help by bringing people closer. The quote at the very beginning spoke of how social media has become the “heart of individuals”. This may not be a bad thing because in the movie, Mae became brighter and interacted more with her co-workers when she became more active on social media. More people at the circle seemed to know her by name and she was greeted by a cheery voice hollering “Hi Mae!” as she walked by. Social media may impact your real life within the physical world in a good way, by rewarding you with more real life interactions.

Your online life in the digital world should however, be kept somewhat separate from your personal life also because sharing too much can be detrimental to your reputation and the reputation of others, according (Citroën, 2017). An example of this is when Mae later uses a feature called SeeChange to find Mercer. Mercer, does not want to be involved in such public broadcasts, and becomes overwhelm with fear and after being followed by circlers with cameras aimed at him, he eventually crashes and dies. If Mae had not broadcasted him live on the internet without his consent, this would not have happened and this is why your real life in the physical world should not contain you constantly sharing news about others without their consent.

In the digital space, there should be a balance between our social and professional persona. How do we know where to draw the line and what to post?

The balance between your social and professional persona online should be that your co-workers should not know too much about your personal life, as some factors should be kept professional. According to (Citroën, 2017), one should not share images of others without their consent. Mae shared content with Mercer without his consent and this was not appropriate for the circle account.

The balance between your social and professional persona is simple. One should only engage with co-workers on appropriate platforms. According to (Business Essentials, 2017), LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter are good social media accounts to share with your colleagues. Having your colleagues on these platforms can be helpful, as they will be able to share work-related information with you. In the movie, Mae Holland was determined to connect with her colleagues on the circler media-sharing website, and this was appropriate because it was work related, and her intension at first was to network with others.

One should keep their social life private and according to (Business Essentials,2017),to ensure balance between your social and professional persona, it is important that you do not add all of your co-workers to your Facebook friend list, as Facebook is where one shares quite personal information. 

The issue of authenticity and truth on social media refers to how one should only post facts online. According to (Citroën, 2017), one of the social media taboos is posting news that has not been confirmed. Posting such content is likely to ensure that you will become persona non grata, as fake news is news that is a waste of time.

Social media is a very powerful tool and has the ability to impact your personal career in a negative or positive way. Social media should be used wisely in the workplace, and everyone working in any industry should be aware of the plethora of negative attention that can result from inappropriate posts. Mae Holland’s story may be a fictional one, but it is representative of what so many individuals experience daily.