With the goal of university in mind, Mitchell Loon is going to be extra cautious with what he posts on social media sites in the future.
The Grade 8 student, along with fellow Kakabeka Falls District Public School and Crestivew Public School students, were taught the ins and outs of responsible posting on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Skype and YouTube Friday from CMV Social Media Inc. president Chris Vollum Friday morning.
Loon uses several social media sites with Facebook, Twitter and Instagram the ones he frequents most and Vollum’s presentation has him thinking twice about his privacy settings.
“I didn’t know the extent of everything you could do on Facebook, so that was a good learning experience,” he said.
Evan Fiorito said the presentation was an eye opener.
“I didn’t really realize how all that stuff could get out there and everyone could see it. I’m definitely going to go home and change my Facebook settings,” said the Grade 8 student.
Vollum first started learning about social media six years ago when his then 13-year-old daughter asked to use Facebook. He now conducts workshops to schools across the province about digital citizenship – how to use the social sites with trust, discretion, integrity and privacy in mind.
“If we can really have that ingrained as part of their personality, then when they get to high school and beyond they’re gong to have a great head start online,” he said.
“They’re going to use it to build their reputation, earn a lot of trust and actually if they do it the right way, they’ll be discovered with career opportunities based on online profiles,” Vollum said. “We’re not going to see a brutal Twitter screen, bullying on Instagram, really grim behaviour on Facebook. It’s going to be all good.”
Elementary aged students seem to think what they post online is private; only the person they send it to is able to see it, said Vollum.
That’s not true. Those posts are permanent and can be moved beyond their control.
“My big belief is that all of us at some point in our lifetime will be Googled and since we’re going to be Googled, what you actually want to be is Googleable,” he said.
People should also maintain their privacy settings and their friends list on sites like Facebook.
“Identify your friends by the level you know them and trust them. It’s our friends who control literally all of our content. As soon as we post something, our friends control it. They can share it. They can move it along to other levels,” said Vollum.
