Over the years I have already minimized my ‘digital footprint’, and am constantly striving to keep my personal life as private as I can. I would hate for something I posted or shared on social media to impact my professional life negatively. As a clinical instructor for Dental Hygiene & Dentistry students at Dalhousie, many of the students are the same age as me, therefore I assume are very present online. I am constantly aware of what they may see, how they could possibly misinterpret it, and feel that it is very important to remain as only a professional in their eyes.
I was initially pleased to discover that googling my name has no results linked to me. Even when adding several descriptors (such as my home city, place of work, etc) there are very few results. The only result I found was a faculty profile link to Dalhousie University, which only shows my name, and the department I work within.
My Facebook and Instagram are both generally only used to directly communicate with friends and family - which I am extremely grateful to have during COVID times! Looking back at my facebook history my last 10 posts include a link to new COVID restrictions in my area, a few photos of my partner and I hiking, visiting his family, a link to a charity fundraiser, and a photo of a sunset from our apartment. While this account is private and only friends/family can see. I would still feel as if I am expressing my professional self even if a student or coworker were able to see these posts. I mainly follow friends, family, local restaurants/businesses, as well as a typical millennial - much of the news I am exposed to is through Instagram or Facebook. Reflecting on my news source intake it made me wonder how accurate and how much of the ‘big picture’ news I am actually viewing. Since my initial social media audit, I have tried to broaden my news network so that I am getting more (hopefully unbiased) information.
In my initial post mentioned that I followed a few dental meme pages. thoughts brought up in a discussion post surrounded ‘what would your patients think if they could see these dental memes’ which provoked me to think more about these posts. While I mean no harm by liking these posts, a patient (respectfully so) may not feel the same way. I have since gone back through some previous posts and unshared. Again while I do still enjoy these posts, I want to maintain a positive online presence.I have decided to only follow and enjoy privately to myself rather than liking or sharing anything for the world to potentially see and misinterpret.
A few things I will be considering now before posting:
Who can see this post? Is it public? Or something that only friends will see?
Is the information I am sharing accurate? Have I fact checked?
Is the information I am posting going to have a positive impact? Or negative?
Is the information going to offend someone? (And if it does am I OK with this?)
Do I want to share this knowing that it exists online forever tied to my name?
While I believe as a health care provider our social media identity should be positive toward our respective profession - advocating for and educating about our profession both accurately and professionally. I have also come to realize that our personal views may not always align with others in our respective field. While it is important to encourage and promote our profession, we are all human and do still have our own opinions. These opinions shouldn't be suppressed. Healthy discussions are key, as long as they can be shared in a respectful manner, that is not negatively impacting the general population. Throughout everything in life we need to look at things openly, as a question, rather than believing/sharing rigid one sided beliefs.
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