I've been meaning to blog about Letran's #CELweek's Social Media & Education Lectures & Fora held last September 27, 2013. Blame me and my vulnerability to procrastination but I guess I was just waiting for inspiration to hit. [Un]fortunately I was graced with occurrences that have somewhat fueled the fire (or rage?) to finally tackle this topic.
I was blessed enough to be speaking with a talented pool of young professionals. Among those speaking was amazing photographer and videographer Kit deSilva and the very funny Youtube sensation Lloyd Cadena. I was asked to prepare two lectures, the first about how to be #Twitterific! and the second to discuss to the attendees the absolute No-Nos! for students on their social media sites.
Now let me start by clarifying this, I am no social media expert. I am not a celebrity nor do I have a million followers. I am just a normal, boring social media user-slash-consumer whore. Now, I will not discuss every point of my lecture but I will discuss with you darlings my two favorite points/tips:
1. Don't ever tweet anything you cannot say in person.
This may be the golden rule that we all unfortunately violate. Constantly plugged into our social networking sites, its almost unimaginable how we'd survive not checking twitter updates or instagram posts. This generation has evolved with an extra limb: the smart phone attached permanently to our fingers. The fact cannot be ignored however that as much progress as social media has celebrated in making connecting with others faster and easier, the same cannot be praised about the quality of our interactions. Haven't you noticed how much braver people are when they are sitting behind a computer? Or hiding behind their smart phone? When used for the greater good, this can obviously be a wonderful thing. But with haters, posers and "parinigers" galore, keeping in mind this simple rule of not tweeting anything you cannot say in person is actually a really smart move.
As I reiterated, over and over again during the fora, think before you click. Or in this case, think before you tweet, because the truth is, you can't really take it back. What we post online can live forever. ( I'm expecting the violent reactions: "Sab, theres a delete button! Delete button! God, delete, delete, delete! " ) Yes my dears, I am quite aware that there is always the delete button. I am sorry to disappoint you all however but hand in hand with the word DELETE, you may find another word before it. The word S C R E E N S H O T.
2. Your self worth is not directly proportional to the amount of followers or likes you get.
This is actually one of the biggest points I wanted to make during my talk. I have gotten so many questions about how to deal with haters, posers and cyber bullies. We live in a generation where everyone is gunning for their fame online and using ( or manipulating?) social networking sites to achieve it. (It should be considered that maybe the eternal issue of body image is evolving into an online image problem.) The world wide web has given all of us the means to broadcast and project our deepest secrets and alter egos. Maybe the birth of online action stars like Ramon Bautista and super fashion bloggers like Kriz Uy has all of us eyeing their 6-7 digit follower count. Of course, there is nothing wrong with online fame, I just hope no one gets completely defined by it (too many opportunities for a distorted perception of reality). If I had my way, we wouldn't be able to see the amount of followers a person had, mainly so we wouldn't intentionally/unintentionally judge someone because of it. So let me repeat: there is no direct correlation between the number of likes/followers a person has and their value as a human being or ability to contribute positively to society.
The fora ended on a high note when one of my students asked the last question for the day. After discussing brand images and managing expectations to her and the rest of my Integrated Marketing Communications class, she was now redirecting the question to me and my fellow speakers:
How do you manage haters and negative comments? How do you manage the expectations of your followers?
I cannot personally quote the other speakers but it is safe to say that the majority of our answers were going hand in hand down the same road. We all should keep in mind that everyone can look at one thing and see it completely differently. We all have our own interpretations and perceptions on ideas, things, places... and people. Often we forget that how we see and project ourselves is never really the same as how others perceive us. Besides how hard would it be to please an audience with conflicting expectations? It's a lose-lose situation. But when you stay true to the inner good in you, you always always win, even when you lose a follower or two.
Remember darlings, this applies on and off line:
" If you live off a man's compliments, you will die from his criticism. "
