“…you’ve got to be careful
what you post online. It can come back and bite you.” Chris Burton made
this statement while being interviewed by the IndyStar. As I read through the
article that they recently posted about a dialogue between a disgruntled customer
and the restaurant manager on Facebook (if you haven’t read it, I would highly
recommend giving it a try at http://www.indystar.com/story/life/food/2016/01/04/kilroys-goes-viral-after-response-angry-customer/78252026/ .
It is pretty mind blowing.) I couldn’t agree
more. We have all been told throughout our lives to be careful what we post on
the internet, you never know who will see it. This is just another example of
this. I was shocked to read that the customer who made the initial comment
deleted the post and her Facebook account, as if this would keep people from
seeing it.
Facebook claims that their
users have on average 338 friends. In an article posted at
it states that only about
12% of your friends actually see the things you are posting. So let’s say that
we take 12% of that average 338 friends. That equals just about 41 of your
friends that see any one of your given posts. That may seem like only a few
people, but imagine if a few of your friends share what you have posted, so
that 41 of their friends see it. Then a few of their friends share it, and
their friends share it. Within a matter of moments your post can go from being
seen by just those 41 people to thousand or even millions of people. I am sure
this women was very upset about her evening spent at this restaurant, and had
no idea that her post and the manager’s comment could go viral in a matter of
moments. Unfortunately, once a post is public there is no way of fully getting
it back. Sure, it can be deleted from your page or even your account can be
shut down, but once it’s public, it is out of your hands.
Another situation of
public scrutiny is displayed at
This summer there was an
intensive investigation after a firefighter made what appeared to be some
racial comments on Facebook. The firefighter also deleted the post and comment
from his page, but once again it was too late. The first article that I
mentioned and this second article both discuss the fact the employers are often
involved in these situations. So not only does this effect the person in a
social, and emotional way, but can effect whether or not they are still
employed. Social media is incredible and beneficial for the fact that it allows
us to express thing we are feeling and keep in contact with people across the
world. This can also be very harmful. As human beings we are often easily upset
and quick to react. I am sure that neither of these individual had any idea of
the ramifications that would follow their posts. They clearly felt very strongly
about what they posted, but everyone that saw their posts, is free to have
their own opinion.
Although these “nasty”
Facebook messages have gone viral, there has been some good from this foul
situation. According to
the daughter of the woman
who suffered the heart attack on New Year’s Eve has started a GoFundMe account
where people have donated over $14,000 to help pay for the woman’s medical
bills. It is very interesting to me that not only are people so willing to critique
and publicly humiliate someone, they are also quick to aid. Unfortunately, I do
not believe that the simple fund account would have gone viral on its own. Without
the negative attention that Holly Jones has received, I believe there would
only have been a fraction of the funds raised. The changes of social media
through sites such as Facebook, give us the opportunity to truly analyze people
and the way we tick. Are people donating money to this fund because they truly
care about the woman or is it to scrutinize Holly Jones even more? Is this a
symbol of love or of “we will show you”? There is no way of tracking conversions
about people’s intentions like we can “likes” and “shares.” It is very evident
that a situation such as this would not have existed even fifteen years ago.
Social Media has completely changed the way we communicate with one another,
and truly made the world a smaller place, but is that always a good thing?
I like that you mentioned how once you post anything on the internet, it can never, ever be undone. Just like we talked about in class to never trust privacy settings. What we share in a split second can haunt us for years.
ReplyDeleteGreat story. I really like the statistics you shared. It helps us better understand how just in a matter of seconds our lives can change if we don't think before we post.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed how you set up the links to where you found your information. They really stood out and made them easy to access. The statistics you shared were very interesting, and showed that you did some research on the related topic. Great job!
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