Published: Sept. 1, 2018
Stop, think before hitting send
What you share is being watched
By Nicholas Dettmann
ndettmann@conleynet.com 262-306-5043
WEST BEND — When the old tweets of Milwaukee
Brewers pitcher Josh Hader resurfaced during the Major League Baseball All-Star
game in July, tweets filled with racist remarks, it offered a harsh reminder to
social media users: Nothing goes away with social media.
Local users took notice and acted.
“I think when I first heard of it, obviously I
was shocked,” said Nick Becker, who is a graduate assistant coach for the
University of Wisconsin-Parkside’s wrestling team and a Hartford Union High
School graduate. “Then my second thought was, ‘Do I have anything on my social
media?’ and I deleted them.”
Becker went through old posts on his Twitter to
see if there were any damning tweets. He found some. He said found some swear
words in some posts from when he was 15 or 16 years old, which was about eight
years ago.
“I was young, 15, 16 years old,” Becker said.
“When you’re that young, you don’t know how it can affect you later. I thought,
‘What was I talking about?’” Thankfully, it was caught before more damage could
be done. Others, like Hader, haven’t been so lucky. Because of that, a greater
sense of urgency has taken place for social media users to be more cautious
with what they’re sharing on the information super highway known as the
internet.
“The past few years, people using social media,
especially with our president using social media to not only campaign, but also
get his word out, can have positive and negative impacts,” Becker said.
“It reinforced what my parents have taught me,
to keep it clean,” said Ben Hoitink, a senior at Slinger High School and member
of the Owls’ football team.
Hoitink is verbally
committed to play football at the University of Penn. He started a Twitter
account during his recruiting period. He did so as a way to stay in touch with
coaches of programs he was interested in or were interested in him. He also
kept track of recruiting news.
Hoitink received more
than 10 scholarship offers to play football in college and he made an
announcement for each offer received on his Twitter page, including his verbal
commitment to Penn.
Not much of a social
media advocate to begin with, Hoitink was aware of the dangers behind certain
things that can be posted online. He was taught to keep everything clean and to
avoid political debates. If he desires to express an opinion about something,
it’s usually best to do so through interpersonal communication or through phone
calls.
He said this was always
his approach, but with what happened to Hader, it was a learning tool.
“It definitely brought
the topic to light,” he said. “I’ll be more careful with what I say. Even if
you delete it, it’s still out there.”
The tweets from Hader
were sent in 2011, when he was in high school, just like Hoitink.
“He was a young guy back
then and didn’t realize the impact it could have on your life down the road,”
Hoitink said.
It has a role in college
recruiting, too, Becker said, from the coach’s perspective.
“You don’t want to judge
an athlete by what they post,” he said. “Everyone makes mistakes and we do
understand that.”
He added at Parkside,
the coaches want to get to know the studentathlete in person. However, if there
is an uncomfortable pattern of posts on Facebook, Twitter, etc., Becker said,
“we’ll pass on those student-athletes.”
Sports is not the only
avenue that can have long-term damage with poor social media or text messaging
use. Prospective employers have adopted greater use of social media to not
only
recruit applicants but, to a degree, also evaluate them.
“I think it’s a huge
part,” said Dawn Schicker, vice president of human resources for ContinuumHR.
“As a recruiter, utilizing social media seems to work quicker. You can
communicate to more people.”
Because of that, with
the help of sites like Linkedln, social media profiles are more accessible for
recruiters. Schicker said Linkedln is designed as the online resume recruiters
can search through, not Facebook or Twitter or Instagram.
And the evaluation may
not stop during the hiring process, Schicker said it’s plausible for someone
who may be out on medical leave, but the employee post a picture of himself or
herself playing basketball when they should be resting and ultimately lose
their job or “counteracting” what they’re telling their respective employer.
When it does come to
hiring, employers are cautious with how they evaluate prospective employees.
“It’s understanding you
can’t always validate what’s on social media,” Schicker said, adding evaluating
social media profiles is a small part of the process, but “it’s human nature”
to at least look at them.
Another potential
problem spot for employers when considering prospective employees is the
possibility of litigation, such as discrimination claims.
“You have to focus on
the things that are relevant,” she said, adding, “I want to make sure I’m
compliant and see how they conduct themselves in the interview.”
The advice for job
seekers?
“Make sure you have
certain privacy settings in place,” Schicker said. “If you have a qualified
recruiter or a human resources department, you’re going to look for the right
things.”
She added that public
posting “is not wise” because “once it’s posted, it’s there. It’s available and
there for someone to retrieve; it never goes away.”
Schools districts are
doing what they can to educate the dangers of social media to students.
Nancy Kunkler,
communications manager for the West Bend School District, said “we promote
digital citizenship to our students. This covers both social media practices,
including bullying, and cyber safety” Students are reminded frequently about
it. Kunkler said an image is posted on the background for all of the district’s
Chromebooks that kids see every time they login to “help remind them of these
important lessons.”
The image says, “Before
you post online, THINK!”
T — Is it true?
H — Is it hurtful?
I — Is it illegal?
N — Is it necessary?
K — Is it kind?
“There are lessons that
teachers, technology coaches, counselors and the Positive Behavioral
Interventions and Supports framework implement at various grade levels,” Kunkler
said. “Two of the messages they convey is ‘think’ before you do something and
remember that what you put ‘out there’ is public knowledge.”
Also, with today’s
technology allowing for screen shots, social media posts may not go away even
if users delete them.
The Slinger School
District requires every freshman to take a seminar class, which goes over
several topics — health, suicide prevention, drugs, alcohol, career planning
and, most recently added, social media.
Slinger Superintendent
Daren Sievers said the class is conducted so students “understand everything
that can trip them up. That class is a real nice vehicle that covers all the
topics.”
Slinger has considered
offering the class to seventh- and/or eighth-grade students as well. So far,
the decision has been made to keep it for freshmen at this point.
“There is something to
be said to get critical information early enough,” Sievers said. “The middle
school has done a great job about the powers of social media.”
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