When I google myself, a picture of a stunning, flawless tanned pageant queen comes up and then I laugh and whisper to myself “in my dreams”.  But with all seriousness, in my Hollywood 9 class at the end of the day we all googled our Instagram usernames and a bunch of our saved photos came up, and family members as well.  There wasn’t much of anything about me attached to my username accept a video of me and my cousins when we were young singing to Annie, it’s a hard knock life in my cabins kitchen while we were doing the dishes, and I was defiantly put off by that.   

I am a very private and cautious person with my social media, I only have people I know follow me and I try and keep the number of people I follow on the downside with the acceptation of a few celebrities, so I’m not consumed with a long feed.  My friends and relatives tend to enjoy and like my stories on Instagram and Snapchat because it keeps them updated on what’s going on in my day.  I think my digital footprint comes across to most people as “normal”.  My posts are down to earth and not all about vanity.  I think this is important if you are a grade 9 girl really making an effort in school with academics as well as athletics; and not to be obsessing over how you look and how many followers you have etc.  

All teenagers have heard the stories about how high school students aren’t careful with there social media and how it can affect their future opportunities and experiences.  For example, Yuri Write was one of the best cornerbacks in America and lost his top scholarship due to his twitter account.  Not many students take theses stories and events to heart, but one day it might affect them more then anything like it does to many others.  Social Media is a dangerous world that I find tip toeing around at times.  People forget that as soon as you post something, even on a private account it is now public because others have access to it and can repost.  These posts can affect and ruin future job and life opportunities. 

One strategy to keep your online appearance safe and appropriate is to always have a private account and keep your followers to a minimum.  Another way to be aware of your online appearance is to make sure no revealing information is advertised in your bio.  For example, where you live, your full name or your school.  On snapchat there has been a new update that includes a new feature in their app called snap maps it allows people to know where you are at any given time, make sure to put yourself on ghost mode in the snapchat settings.  I also try my best not to advertise when I am away on vacation, so people don’t get a hold of the knowledge that my house is vacant.

I will try my best to be a good role model for younger students and friends as well as any fellow classmates of mine around the topic of social media.  “It is easier to be mean behind a screen” this is a quote that is full of honesty which means it’s a reality.  To add to this quote, it is also easy to hide behind a screen and no show your face which many people are aware of.  I try and remind people of this because it seems that people often forget it.  Social Media can be awesome, but it can also be tragic.  As a community we need to use it as a resource for the better.