The Internet is a tool designed to let people communicate easily with each other. It is a space to share thoughts, beliefs and make connections that could potentially give us a job.
But not every person knows
how to properly use the Internet. Nowadays, employers are looking at our
personal sites to see what we think and what we say in the cyber world.
Sites like Twitter are designed to keep
people updated on what is happening around the world. We learn from politics to
culture to entertainment. But what about when you decide to share your deepest
thoughts without really thinking. Could it have a negative impact in your
professional life?
A report done by tbk Creative, a web
design and social marketing agency from Toronto, shows that Hamilton and
Brantford are the two most vulgar cities on Twitter. The group decided to
combine tweets from Canada’s largest cities that included the city’s name and
the vulgar term “F&@K, SH*T, and DA#%IT”
Andrew Schiestel is the chief of WOW, projects
at tbk Creative and he decided to gather over 1,000,000 tweets with the goal of
learning where the practice of vulgarity happens most in Canada on Twitter.
“Not every tweet came from the city or its
citizens, but instead were simply tweets that mentioned the city name and the
vulgar word," said Andrew.
Hamilton was ranked in second place, with
0.90% following Brampton on first place with 1.41% and ahead of London in third place
with 0.70%
In an interview on “AM980’s McArthur in the
Morning” Schiestel talked about his report.
The study only showed results on Twitter,
but what about sites like Facebook?
“Social networking websites like Facebook
are designed for you to authentically share your life, from pictures, to your
timelines, to the events you attend. Twitter was originally designed to share
what you were doing or thinking about,” said Schiestel
So does this mean sites like Twitter are
making people more vulgar?
“I don’t think so, I think social media is
making people more themselves. In a professional setting few people swear, it
would be inappropriate. In a personal setting things change. The issue is that
your professional contacts can also see your most personal thoughts when you
publish them publicly through these social media channels, and many times
people’s thoughts aren’t pretty. I think it is making people express their most
inner thoughts more frequently. Both the good and the ugly.”
Dr. Alex Sévigny from the Department of Communication
Studies and Multimedia at McMaster University teaches business how to use
social media more effectively.
“I don’t think sites like Twitter are
making people more vulgar, I think it’s making people more accountable for what
they do. It’s making people responsible for their behaviour online, because
everything you say on twitter can be easily view by others.”
Making a decision before you post anything
online can really make a difference. Being careful about what you are saying can help protect or damage your reputation for the thousands of people who might look at your profile.
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