Have you ever been embarrassed from family members posting
awkward pre-teen photos on Facebook? Why do you feel embarrassed? It’s probably
because Facebook has now turned into a community of more than just your family
members. Your coworkers, college roommates, and friends’ parents, can now see
what you looked like as an acne-faced, overweight child. Great.
Well up until today, I did not know how to describe why I
was so embarrassed or if there was even a word to describe it. Turns out there
is a term – Context Collapse. This term describes when your communities, online
or in person, overlap or collide. While this term is often applied to social
media and the different types of people interacting within your personal
community, it can happen outside of the digital world as well.
As a teacher, I find this happens quite often. I project
myself to my students and their parents as a professional within the walls of
the classroom and at school events. Occasionally, I run into them in the mall
or at the grocery store and I these moments I am not dressed as a teacher. I am
mostly likely on the way back from the gym, without make up, and sweaty. It is
then I say a quick hello and hurry off to finish my errands. Why do I feel this
way? Probably because I do not want to mix my personal life with my
professional life. As a teacher, we are always told to make this “line” between
personal and profession very clear and distinct when it comes to our students.
Okay, back to the social media aspect…
It is because I was fearing context collapse all along that I
have social media accounts for different things. Facebook, my first ever social
media app, I have the most followers or friends; coworkers, high school friends,
college friends, family members, and other acquaintances I deem acceptable to
know about my life. Here I censor my posts to recipe videos, articles, or
personal accomplishments that I don’t mind bragging about. On Instagram and
snapchat, I am very picky about who I let follow me. This is the social media where
I post more about my personal life including nights out with friends, photos of
my boyfriend, and day to day activities.
Anyone else feel the pressure of context collapse or
separate their social media lives like I do to avoid context collapse?
I definitely do this on Facebook!
ReplyDeleteI 'catalog' my friends list by different groups. When I post something, I consider who I want seeing it and then select the group(s) from the drop-down menu. This helps prevent awkward comments and questions from friends and family when they don't understand the context.
When it comes to posts about work, I actually set those to public. I know that future employers look at candidate profiles, so I am careful about what they can see. I want them to see *something* though, because I want them to know I'm proficient with social media and it's good for them to see what kinds of professional activities I engage in. What they won't see is photos of me out to dinner with friends, the funny thing my friend just said, or what I'm up to on vacation.
I try to avoid context collapse as well, mostly with Instagram and Snapchat. While I still censor posts I share on Instagram and Snapchat, those are traditionally more informal.
ReplyDeleteI also take the same approach as Cat about making specific posts on Facebook public for future employers to see. I have job and professional-development related posts set to public so those who view my Facebook will see a small slice of my life, but only the slice I want them to see.