Scholar in Residence: Tony Wilson '74
Social Media: How to Protect Yourself from Yourself
Facebook barely existed five years ago, yet by September 2011, it had over 800 million users. If it were a country, Facebook would be the third largest country in the world. Over two billion YouTube videos are accessed every day; the average user spending at least 15 minutes a day on the site. Twitter users send over 65 million tweets a day. Although the social media landscape has revolutionized how people communicate and interrelate with each other over the past five years, it has also created new issues for parents, children and young adults: online reputation management. Many teens and twenty-somethings don’t seem to understand how the comments, photos and videos they post on social media sites can be publicly accessible, profoundly inappropriate, legally-defamatory and career-limiting. Everything that goes online stays online, leaving digital tattoos that anyone from teachers to future employers might find, and, more importantly, might find objectionable. It’s important for students and parents alike to understand the importance of online reputation management, how easily a reputation can be damaged and how long that damage can last. Join Vancouver lawyer, Globe and Mail columnist and author Tony Wilson ’74 to learn how to protect yourself and your online reputation. Watch an interview with Tony Wilson |