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More Than Half of Americans Have Social Media Regrets

Oops, I Did It Again

Just last month the fashion world learned of yet another social media casualty as J.Crew’s Alejandro Rhett, the vice president of men’s merchandising, posed for Instagram photosafter staff layoffs. Hashtagged #hungergames and #maytheoddsbeeverinyourfavor, the insensitive photos were quickly deleted, but screenshots can still be seen on the Web.

Just a week earlier, a fourth-grade teacher at Texas’ Bennett Elementary school posted an article to her Facebook page in response to the now-famous, “pool party” incident in nearby McKinney, Texas. “This makes me ANGRY!” reads the post from Fitzgibbons, referring to police officer Eric Casebolt’s resignation after being caught video throwing a black, bikini-clad teenage girl to the ground. “This officer should not have to resign. I’m going to just go ahead and say it…the blacks are the ones causing the problems and this ‘racial tension,’” she continued. “I guess that’s what happens when you flunk out of school and have no education.”

These types of social media missteps have Americans increasingly concerned about what they post online. According to a new YouGov Omnibus survey, Americans who admit to making mistakes on social media are less worried today about sounding foolish than they were two years ago, but much more worried about damaging their reputation at work. Twenty-one percent surveyed are concerned they might adversely affect their careers with a questionable social media post.

The same survey found 14 percent are afraid they may hurt relationships with family or partners by sharing misguided images or messages. As it turns out, 24 percent of women were much more likely to worry about possible damage to their close relationships than men, at 18 percent. Racially, while men appear are more worried about the effect of such blunders on their career, than women, at 20 percent versus 8 percent, respectively.

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Taken as a whole, 57 percent of Americans who use social media have posted or texted something that they regret afterwards. One in six regret a post at least once a week, and these numbers vary depending on age, with 20 percent of Millennials (18 to 34) being the worst regular offenders.

When these mistakes occur, is an interesting aspect of the study. Social media blunders are happening at home, late at night when tired, or after drinking alcohol. And these habits vary widely depending on the age group, with statistical results below.

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In the end, the moral of the social media story is: stay conscientious, my friends. You never know what may come of an impromptu share.

One bad tweet can be costly to a student athlete

, @RocDevoPublished 6:23 p.m. ET Sept. 11, 2014 | Updated 1:12 a.m. ET Sept. 12, 2014

 Fairport boys basketball coach Scott Fitch talks about the impact of social media on the future of teens. Video by Jeff DiVeronica

“But we’re going to stop recruiting one of them,” the college coach said.

Stunned, Fitch asked why.

“We found his Twitter account, looked through it and some of what we saw isn’t representative of what our university is about,” the recruiter explained.

With seemingly every teenager active these days on social media, that type of conversation happens now more often than you might think. It led Fitch to find out more so that the 43-year-old could teach his players and fellow coaches at Fairport what’s appropriate and inappropriate for high school students to post on Facebook, Instagram and, most prominently now, Twitter. Since then, he has done more than 40 presentations at area schools with students, coaches, faculty and parents..

Fitch also has presented “Pause Before You Post,” at a Section V Sportsmanship Summit and to administrators on the state level.

“Never let a 140 character tweet cost you a $140,000 scholarship,” Brandon Chambers, an assistant men’s basketball coach at Marymount (Virginia) University, tweeted on Aug. 25.

On some recruiting forms, colleges ask for a student’s social media screen names or addresses.

More schools are using Twitter to give their athletes recognition, in-game updates or final scores. But any individual student can stir up trouble with a single comment, picture or online conversation, and that extends well beyond just an elite athlete trying to get a scholarship. Teens complaining about playing time, bickering with a teammate or trash-talking an opponent have forced coaches to be more vigilant about their players’ online activity. It’s not as frequent as preparing a plan for the next practice or game, but it’s something coaches simply can’t ignore.

“It’s here to stay and we either get up with the times and figure out how to get through it or we’ll be sorry,” said veteran Rush-Henrietta football coach Joe Montesano, who’ll occasionally tweet inspirational sayings or messages for his players to see. “I think it’s part of the education process as a teacher and coach. We try to model for them, try to teach them how to do it the right way.”

The wrong way can happen as soon as a student-athlete hits “Send.”

“It’s instant and it’s public and some kids don’t realize that,” said Gates Chili athletic director Ken Hammel, who is Monroe County’s representative on Section V Sportsmanship Committee. “You can start a pretty big disruption with one comment that is tweeted or retweeted and taken the wrong way. It could offend an entire district.”

Twitter-cool

Local schools are now starting to include a student’s online activity as part of their code of conduct. In Hilton, for example, it’s covered under the citizenship category for “inappropriate use of technology/media.”

Why did Twitter supplant Facebook among teens as the place to be online?

“When Facebook became more popular with adults and when their parents and grandparents got on (Facebook) it shifted for kids,” said Michael Gaio, eMedia editor for Athletic Business. “Facebook no longer was cool.”

It became the “hangout” your parents knew about and could monitor, so kids found a new, more private (at least from their parents) space. Now Twitter is becoming old hat, so teens are trending toward Instagram, which is posting pictures (no text) that can receive “Likes” or comments. That can be dangerous, too.

“The big things for kids is to see how many ‘Likes’ they can get so the more outrageous your picture is, the more ‘Likes’ you might get so that’s a potential pitfall,” said Pittsford’s Scott Barker, one of the more active athletic directors statewide on Twitter, providing game updates and pictures of games and his athletes.

Many parents have Twitter accounts just to spy on their kids’ online activity. Penfield girls soccer coach Libbie Tobin doesn’t worry about that much, but said she “can sense when something is going on,” among her players that might become a problem, so she’ll remind them and say, “Hey, I don’t want to hear about anything on Twitter.”

Good team captains police their own squads, a couple of students said.

“If I see someone on our team saying something (on Twitter), I’ll say, ‘Hey, it’s not worth it. Maybe you should take that that down (and delete it).’ Then it’s their choice,” said Hilton girls soccer midfielder Alex DiVasta, a senior captain.

R-H junior quarterback Jared Gerbino said Montesano reminds his players often to be careful what they post. There has been trash talk at R-H in the past that he’s noticed. “Nothing major, just like ‘We’re going to kick your butt,’ ” he said. Gerbino tries to steer clear of it.

Last fall, a wide receiver at one Monroe County school tweeted at a defensive back for another saying he was going to have a big night against him. When a girls soccer player for one school rubbed it in with a tweet about the Honeoye Falls-Lima girls losing the state title match, 1-0, an HF-L player reminded that girl that the Cougars had beaten her team in the sectional final.

Aquinas boys basketball coach Mike Grosodonia takes his players’ phones before each game so they can’t tweet while it’s going on. “I’ve heard of kids going in at halftime and getting on Twitter if they’re crushing a team or something,” he said. No parent has taken issue with that, he said.

“They’re kids. Sometimes they make mistakes, just like we did,” Grosodonia said.

But now it’s online and that almost always means it’s instantly public, which can create more problems.

Turn-off to college

After that phone call, what Fitch found later that night after scrolling through his players’ Twitter feeds wasn’t anything criminal or drug-related.

“Classic kid stuff, just not thinking,” Fitch said. “He used some vulgar language. There was some partying stuff.”

That was enough. In the most competitive age for scholarship money, kids can’t afford to take the chance.

East Rochester graduate Ron Whitcomb Jr., now in his eighth year as an assistant football coach at Old Dominion University, said he’ll research a recruit’s social media presence before he even makes any contact with the player, which per NCAA rules can’t happen before the start of his junior.

“You’ve got to dig through all the avenues you can,” said Whitcomb, 30, who is ODU’s recruiting coordinator.

He’ll check for a Facebook profile, Twitter and now Instagram — all tools he may later use to keep in touch with the player. Recently, ODU stopped recruiting a quarterback because it didn’t like what it found on his Facebook profile. There was vulgar language, some pictures with the player posing with his tongue out. “He looked like Miley Cyrus,” Whitcomb said. “That can’t be the face of your team (as a QB).”

Another “turn-off,” Whitcomb said, was finding a player posted too often for ODU’s taste. “Sixteen posts a day? He was on social media too much,” he said. “Is he spending enough time on important stuff?”

Anything that’s racially insensitive or sexist is also a red flag, he said. Old Dominion, he said, is probably one of about 10 college football teams that doesn’t allow its players to post on Twitter.

Whitcomb doesn’t want to come off as “holier than thou,” he said, but he wants teens to know these are factors recruiters watch when evaluating a player’s character. In late July, Penn State stopped recruiting a player because of social media. “Actually glad I got to see the ‘real’ person before offered him,” tweeted offensive line coach Herb Hand, a native of Westmoreland, near Utica.

Hand later elaborated to an online publication, 247sports.com, saying: “If a guy makes the decision to post or (retweet) stuff that degrades women, references drug use or cyber-bullying crap, then I can make the decision to drop them, especially if I have discussed it with them prior, and especially in today’s climate of athletics.”

JDIVERON@DemocratandChronicle.com

Twitter.com/RocDevo

Dos and don’ts

Excerpts from Michael Gaio’s blog on social media dos and don’ts for student-athletes

Nothing is truly private … ever. While many kids think they can delete a tweet or delete their Facebook profile if need be, many don’t realize that content posted on the Internet can last forever. Content can be captured in screenshots or saved by other users.

If you retweet it (or share it), you own it. “Freedom of speech does not equal freedom from consequences,” says David Petroff, director of athletic communications at Edgewood (Wis.) College.

Personal branding. Every tweet reflects who you are. How are student-athletes choosing to represent themselves?

Say thank you. Teach student-athletes to take time to thank those who support them. Fans, teammates and family, for example.

Support others. Student-athletes can provide a positive example for other students by sending positive messages about their peers in other sports or activities at school.

7 Social Media Mistakes That Could Damage Your Career

Author: J.T. Ripton

Social media is booming with opportunities. For some business professionals, it could mean networking that will boost your career to new heights. For others, it could mean the end of your career. Don’t be a part of the latter group. Avoid these seven social media mistakes.

Complaining About Your Job or Boss

Putting your complaints out there for the world to see is never the way to go, especially when you have something to say about your job or your boss. Even when you think your posts are safe from your boss, a colleague might be able to forward it to him or her.

Even if that one comment doesn’t hurt your job now, it could come back to haunt you later. A future potential employer might see it and decide that you’re not worth hiring since you’ve badmouthed your employers in the past.

Sharing Your Latest Job Offer

The thing about job offers is that they’re sometimes confidential. Just because you have the job offer doesn’t mean it’s a sure thing, and if you break that confidentiality right off the bat, your employer may see you as untrustworthy and revoke the job offer.

Definitely don’t say anything negative about the job offer! Mashable reports on a woman who posted, “Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.”

Unfortunately, a Cisco employee saw the post. She lost the job before her first day.

Plagiarizing

The typical career counselor might advise you to stay away from bikini pictures, drugs, and profanity to avoid losing your job. Forget about those little mishaps for a second and think about one of the biggest things that can damage your career: plagiarism.

This is an important one, because plagiarism is completely unacceptable in the business world. It will follow you throughout your career, whereas a rant or two won’t always prevent future employers from hiring you. Plagiarizing is like screaming, “I’m incompetent and lazy, and I lack integrity!”

It’s not just about keeping your professional accounts free from plagiarism, but you also have to hold your personal accounts to the same standards. Are you posting a photo? Give the photographer credit. Quoting an article? Cite the author.

Using Texting Language

It might seem like no big deal to use texting language on social media, especially when it’s convenient while posting on your iPad Air or when you can’t make your tweet fit otherwise. However, chances are you’re better off spelling everything out. Otherwise, you could be losing jobs because of it. A Jobvite survey found that 66 percent of employers look negatively upon poor spelling and grammar on social media.

Posting Tasteless Comments

Any comment meant to offend another person or group could cost you your job. For example, CNN reports on an incident where a former Washington National radio show producer drunkenly tweeted an inflammatory and racist comment about the people of San Antonio after his team lost a game.

Others on the radio show were not amused and fired him for his comment. Wherever you are on the Internet, avoid posting offensive comments like this, even if they’re meant as a joke.

Posting Photos With Alcohol

Yes, even if you’re over 21, this behavior could cost you your job. In 2009, a teacher named Ashley Payne posted a photo on Facebook of her visit to a brewery while she was on vacation.

Naturally, she had a glass of wine and a beer in her hand. Due to a complaint from a student’s parent, the school district suspended her. Steer clear of these photos no matter the situation.

Mocking Your Customers

Like complaining about your boss, mocking or complaining about your customers can have equally poor effects. Several Internet stories involve waiters who have taken photos of poor tips and posted them online only to get fired for doing so. Complaining about customers only shows your company in a bad light. Most employers won’t stand for that, so avoid posting these types of complaints online.

What types of social media mistakes have you seen that damaged someone’s career?

Don’t Post That! Why Half of Americans Regret Their Social Media Posts

July 28, 2015 Sarah Snow

Lucille Ball famously said, “I’d rather regret the things I’ve done than regret the things I haven’t done.”

It looks like America has a similar attitude, especially online. Fifty seven percent of Americans who use social media have posted or texted something that they regret. “One in six regret a post at least once a week, and these numbers vary depending on age, with 20 percent of Millennials (18 to 34) being the worst regular offenders,” writes Shane Paul Neil for the Huffington Post.

A new YouGov Omnibus survey reveals that Americans who make social media mistakes are most often worried about looking foolish. Their second most common worry? Offending a friend.

Compared to two years ago, American are more concerned about how their social media activity might negatively affect their careers.

“The same survey found 14 percent are afraid they may hurt relationships with family or partners by sharing misguided images or messages,” writes Neil. “As it turns out, 24 percent of women were much more likely to worry about possible damage to their close relationships than men, at 18 percent. Racially, while men appear are more worried about the effect of such blunders on their career, than women, at 20 percent versus 8 percent, respectively.”

So as conscientious social media users, how might we avoid appearing foolish, offending people and losing our jobs? The YouGov Omnibus survey also asked people about the circumstance of their social media mishaps.

Most commonly, people make mistakes when they are busy and respond too quickly. (Misspelled tweet, anyone?) People said they often regretted social media messages they wrote at home late at night. (Facebook wall post criticizing your brother-in-law’s taste in shorts.) Or after drinking alcohol. (Facebook wall post criticizing your brother-in-law’s taste in women.)

When social media mistakes occur varies largely depending on the age group you belong to.

A 2011 study called “I Regretted the Minute I Pressed Share,” by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University looked at the kind of messages that people most often regret.

This study found that the most common Facebook regrets revolve around sensitive topics such as alcohol, sex, politics, religion or emotional content. “That includes posts about relationships, with profanity and/or negative comments,” writes Elise Hu for NPR. “The study’s title came from a respondent who posted a regrettable negative thought about a job interview.”

The three sources of Facebook regret according to the Carnegie Mellon study are when a post reaches an unintended audience, when social media users fail to foresee consequences to a post, or when users don’t understand privacy settings.

“Users often don’t remember or know who might see their Facebook content,” writes Hu. “In some cases, they were concerned only about their Facebook friends and not conscious of the fact that people outside their individual network would encounter the post.”

A common source of regret is when a Facebook users expect a negative consequence but underestimate its severity. “Study participants used examples like posting and tagging photos of friends in states of inebriation, or posting messages or jokes that were racist or sexist, which in some cases led to professional ramifications,” writes Hu.

Often, people who are not used to using Facebook or other social media accidently post things they don’t mean to post.

The Carnegie Mellon researchers wrote:

“One survey respondent said, ‘I accidentally posted a video of my husband and I having sex . . . I didn’t mean to post it, I had accidentally clicked on the video of my daughter taking her first steps and on that video and they both uploaded together … I didn’t know I had posted it until the day after, when I logged on again, and saw all the comments from all of our friends and family, and my [husband’s] coworkers (he’s in the Army).’”

The Carnegie Mellon researchers found that the nature of online and offline regret is different. “Evidence from real-world-regret literature (yes, there are many studies in this area) show that what we regret in real life tends to be what we don’t do — we regret inaction because of the fear of negative outcomes,” writes Hu. “For example, when we regret not telling people how we really feel about them.”

Research shows that Facebook users regret their action instead of inaction, “in which the impulsiveness of sharing or posting on Facebook may blind users to the negative outcomes of posts even if the outcome is immediate,” the Carnegie Mellon researchers write.