The Curse Of Social Media And Avoiding Ending Your Career

According to reknowned author, computer scientist, technologist and futurist Jaron Lanier, social media has had a significant impact upon the political landscape, social cohesion and our personal relationships. Lanier states that the algorithms used by websites, such as Facebook, were not originally intended to be “evil”, manipulative or destructive. They are designed to prioritise and promote content that would retain the highest levels of engagement from the user as part of a free-to-use business model based on advertising revenue. In his lectures to universities and even US government, Lanier explains how research has proven that the type of content retaining the highest level of engagement across a wide range of social sites is mostly associated with anger, aggression, negativity and political polarisation. The subject matter or topic often begins with good intention such as the effort to address a social injustice, but somehow along the way decends into the quagmire of rage and tribalism.

Over time this has had a significant effect on the way people interact with each other and authority. In a recent lecture, Lanier stated that he knew of an occasions when Western governments had visited Facebook to request changes to the algorithms driving the platform. Whilst the platform, like many others, create a great place for debate, as a result governments were being urged to pass laws by significant movements and majorities that, in reality, were likely to cause medium – long term problems or even damage to society. He did not explain the exact detail, but this level of engagement should raise further concerns. Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has famously shared his concerns about the future of technology on many occasions, discussing the potential for chaos and destruction on a global scale. Yet Lanier highlights the more subtle changes for the worse we experience in the here and now. When discussing his book, Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now, Lanier argues that we should at the very least leave our social media accounts for a few months just to see how this affects our lives, our politics and are general psychology and I can understand why.

Emphasizing the crowd means de-emphasizing individual humans in the design of society, and when you ask people not to be people, they revert to bad, mob-like behaviors. – Jaron Lanier, You Are Not a Gadget

Your Social Interactions

Having briefly discussed the darker underbelly of social media we can safely assume that, if we choose to use these platforms, at some point we will be tempted to voice our opinion where it may be unhelpful to our professional life. There is always some event, politician or hot topic to lure us into a debate. However, these websites are also excellent places to communicate and engage with the design community, existing customers and post our creations with a view to attracting new clients. With this in mind, here are a few things to be aware of (…and whilst they may seem obvious, there are many people who get caught out by them to this day!)

Assume your clients, colleagues and peers have their own political views, opinions and lifestyle choices that could be significantly different to your own. Therefore, be aware that your own opinion and commentary may influence their choice in whether they feel comfortable working with you.
Whether commenting on behalf of your own business or personally, as a freelancer, one is indistinguishable from the other. It is possible to create personal accounts but most companies insist you use your real name. I would therefore refer you to the previous point in this list.
You are “a bit of a joker”? You are a liability. Once you understand that, you can proceed in the knowledge that if one of your jokes goes south, it really can destroy your career. Informal moments are permitted in my own interactions but any attempt to lighten the moment should be reserved and strictly filtered to ensure they cannot be interpreted in a negative way.
If you decide to publish anything about your personal life on Facebook (and I would advise caution here), set the status accordingly ie friends only. My advice would be to limit presenting your life to the world and if you do ask yourself, even if your post is set to friends only, “what would my client think?”. Oh, and unless you just use your account for business, do not accept clients as friends (unless they know you really well and you have considered the other points in this article very carefully).

Remember that commenting and publishing posts can exist on the internet even after you delete them. That angry Twitter comment you deleted because you regreted it 30 seconds later? Well, someone already published a screenshot. That sarcastic, cutting Facebook comment on your friends public post last week? This post was a public post.
Accept that you need to sacrifice a significant amount of your right to express your opinion or try to be the comedian. It is a simple case of professional conduct. You monitor your language and comments when speaking directly to clients…so what is the difference on the internet?
Be aware that the users you follow on Twitter for example, provide grounds for guilt by association. Whilst you might find a certain political leader intriguing (but you do not agree with the views they present), you are likely to be viewed as “in agreement” with them by simply receiving their content.
Select content wisely. Personally, I only use Twitter for business purposes. Occasionally I read the trending topics, but mainly focus on professional sources such as Adobe, keywords such as Graphic Design or client accounts. There are a few friends I trust on there too.

Hopefully this provides some food for thought. They are the guidelines I operate within to ensure professional standards are met, but use your own judgement on limitations you set yourself. You can see the social channels I used for all personal and professional work below: