When you make a post on social media, you might just think that it’s about nothing more than making a social media post.
However, what you may not know is that posting on social media can have much more wide-reaching consequences than just the consequences you see in the moment.
Here are four impacts that might change the way you look at what you share online.
Professional Impacts
It might shock you, but more and more frequently, hiring managers are starting to look up candidates online to see whether they’re a good fit for a company. There are many reasons hiring managers may decline to pursue a candidate further, including issues with inappropriate content, bad-mouthing previous employers, and a generally unprofessional social media presence. Your next social media post could make it more difficult for you to get a new job. Conversely, many people these days are actually using social media to successfully job hunt, which you can read more about here. You can assume these people have carefully curated their social content to reflect a good candidate for prospective hiring managers.
General Personal Impacts
The things that you post online are a reflection of who you are as a person, and that may mean that people see you differently if they learn about your online presence. Offline friends may not know how you carry yourself online, and if they discover that it’s significantly different from who you are offline, they may decide to move away from you. Either make sure your online presence matches your offline presence or keep your online presence very private.
>An Impact on Your Future Potential
Are you interested in one day becoming a public figure? If you are, it’s a good idea to start keeping an eye on whether your posts are controversial or generally distasteful. It’s said that “the internet never forgets,” and this is definitely true when it comes to online public figures. If you’re ever hoping to become a public figure, whether that’s a politician, a celebrity, or even just a social media influencer, be very careful about your posts right now, as they can impact your life in the future.
Changes to the Friends You Can Make Online
The type of person you are online will typically impact the type of friends you make. If you’re interested in making friends with people who are from a specific subculture or who have specific views, you’re going to want to make sure that you’re reflecting a type of person they would want to follow. Everyone curates who they are on the internet at least a little bit, and it’s a good idea to pay attention to how you’re curating your own presence.
Conclusion
Your internet presence can have lingering, long-term impacts over a significant amount of time. While you might not think too much before you hit the “Post” button, it’s actually more important than you might think to be careful about the things you post and how public they are. If you want to check for your past internet presence, it can be a good idea to clean that past information up now, before it becomes a weight on your current and future self.
