Before you click ‘post’ on politics, think about your digital legacy

A lot of my friends have been very active lately on social media — some leading up to the election and others even more so after.

It doesn’t matter if they are pro-Donald Trump posts or anti-President Trump posts, about 70 percent of them make me cringe. Not because I necessarily disagree with the post, but the way the post’s content reflects on the author.

You see, what I’m concerned about is my social media friends’ digital legacies, their digital footprint.

I’m sure you’ve heard this before: What you post online or send in an email never really goes away, as evidenced by all this hacking nonsense around election time.

So many of my social media pals are posting with emotion and not considering the impact of their post. They might be considering the immediate consequences, but I highly doubt they’re considering future consequences when they click “post” or “send.”

Take my younger friends and family, for example. Some of them are in their very opinionated 20s and early 30s. Many of them are not mature enough to dial back the vitriol in their posts.

Now, let’s say they find themselves in a position to interview for their dream job, or in a position where they just have to find a new job. Do they honestly think that their potential future employer will not scour their social media accounts? Yes, yes they will.

Many of those that have grown up in the everyone-gets-a-trophy generation will roll their eyes at this information and say, “Well, I don’t want to work for a company that doesn’t align with my beliefs or doesn’t just take me as I am.”

That is not the real world, snowflake.

The potential employer might align perfectly with your vitriolic rhetoric online. They might think that you are somebody that they would like to have a conversation with. Even though they might agree with you, they will have to ask what type of a person posts this stuff online and expects everybody to be OK with it?

Probably not the type of person they want working in their organization — a troll, a pot-stirrer, a troublemaker.

Or, let’s say, the company doesn’t mind that you’re spouting off online three or four times a day and you get the job. What’s the first thing many people do when they receive a company-wide email that welcomes a new employee on board?

That’s right, they check out social media to see who the new person is. If you would like to be immediately judged by all of your new coworkers, by all means keep posting. And posting. And posting.

Of course, this goes for pictures of your crazy Saturday night doing keg stands in a bikini or — God forbid — in a Speedo.

The terms “digital footprint” and “digital legacy” should be enough to scare you out of posting things before you really think it through and consider both the immediate and future consequences.

OK, OK; enough beating around the bush. Here’s the bottom line: Stop posting political nonsense. Just stop it!

By this time, we already know that you’re a member of the “alt-right” or you’re feeling the Bern or you’re with her or you’re trying to make America great again. We get it!

Do yourself a favor, do your future a favor: Get back to posting pictures of your food and/or your pets

You’re welcome and thank you very much.

Follow @GOMikeRussell