How Do You React And Present Yourself On Social Media? | Facebook Walk With Reid
Reid: Hey Facebook it’s Reid from https://reidaboutsex.com/ and I’m wearing one of the out of stock sex geek tank tops that we made a couple of summers ago.
So as you’re signing on, let me know if you would like me to do another run of the tank tops and…..and today I’m going to talk about you might have seen the CNN news story about Harvard University rescinding some acceptance letters force a couple of students I think about ten or something like that if I’m remembering the article for them you know sharing some memes that were not…..not so nice on a in a Facebook group and it had me think about because there’s some people posting their reactions to….to that news story. Just…I want to ask you the question about what do you think your online persona in your….your timeline? How do you think or what do you think is….is right for that to really affect how people see you and I’m just kind of interested and nerdy about this and I’m….I’m going to say right now, I have opinions about how human beings especially adults should take responsibility for what they post and I also know that things that I thought were funny when I was in eighth grade or in high school. Now that I am nerdy about things like social justice and transformational justice and I’m a little bit of a nerd about systemic oppression and you know like I just I want to I personally want to live the world a better place than I found it and having been educating myself and having friends who are helping me get better at understanding things like male privilege or and white privilege even things as nerdy as just being an extrovert and you know like slut privilege and things like that.
I know that there are things that I thought were funny when I was younger that now that I understand situations, they’re just not funny anymore and some of the jokes that I still remember that I would have told when I was younger, a younger adult I have a different opinion on you know like jokes about I’m going to sit if I don’t fall off here. I don’t want to walk right now. But jokes have you know about women or about sluts or jokes about sex workers and things like that, they’re just not funny to me anymore for a lot of different reasons: I have done sex work, I date sex workers, I have and I just have you know even you know I have friends who are lawyers and some of the lawyer jokes that I used to tell are kind of mean to lawyers. But the idea of you know when I was younger, we didn’t have the internet in the same way and so we don’t have recordings or you know memes or posts of me telling those jokes. So there’s an interesting situation as….as we grow as we learn you know what and….and because the internet exists forever like what….what should you….. how to hold somebody accountable for or to when they’re let’s say when they’re in eighth grade versus when they’re you know twenty eight? It does that change when they’re sixteen and now they’re thirty six. It does a change for somebody who is basically kind of ignorant and didn’t know any better and they’re in their whatever age you know 30’s or 40’s or whatever and now they’re less ignorant or they’re swimming in circles where you know the communities themselves are holding them to a higher standard of accountability like what…..what do we do? Are you supposed to go back through you know all your years of Facebook and delete posts or things that you realize now are more offensive and what does it mean about the things I’m going to use the word “sensitive” not like people are sensitive snowflakes but more like as the world becomes more sensitive to injustice and we can promote or broadcast where things are kind of off and wobbly. You know like there was a time when I really didn’t know about ableism and my understanding of race dynamics was not what it is now and so and I and I didn’t know to look for that stuff back you know in the 70s and 80s and 90s when I was growing up.
So, if we also project or forecast into the future that there will be things that that some people well I’ll speak for myself, things that I didn’t know to be sensitive about or aware of like ten years from now there’ll be new stuff I didn’t know that I didn’t know and so you know ten years from now, do I go back you know every couple of years and just erase or delete all the posts or things that I realize now because I have a different awareness that are….are insensitive or just you know or just me being a jerk and not knowing it which I think is different than being a jerk and….and knowing it but at…at the same time like this is more of a conversation because we’ve never really had this kind of opportunity before as human beings and….and so many of us never had this kind of digital presence before as human beings either.
So, I’m more interested in what your thoughts are because I have a lot of friends and…and…and followers who span the range of “Hey, Reid. I’m just starting to you know get interested in understanding male privilege and sexism and consent culture and how slut-shaming and victim-blaming you know our systemic things and I’m just starting to learn. I’m bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and….and I want to do a good job” and then you know I’ve got friends and….and….and….and peers who this is this is their area of expertise and they’re amazing at calling people in and calling people out and so like what do you think? Because now we have people on the planet who’ve had a Facebook page since they were ten or eleven and you know as they grow older like how do we invite people to be less jerks in the world and also I guess there’s going to be some people who…who still want to tell the lawyer jokes and they’re like “No Reid. I’m…I’m firmly standing by the…the lawyer memes regardless of who I have as lawyer friends” or….or insert whatever you know occupation or dynamic or whatever Mad lib you want to drop into the joke.
What do you think? I’m more interested about what you all think. If you want to leave comments you can email me at reid@reidaboutsex.com and I’m still kind of thinking about this too you know if…if there are people that got kicked out of Harvard or disinvited from Harvard because and again I didn’t see the memes or….or any of that stuff and I’m not condoning by any means hate speech or just being a dush but I’m….I’m interested in what seems to be a certain kind of people or jerks when they’re younger and then they either learn how to be less jerky or they double down on their jerk-titude and…..and I’m curious about that and I think last, a couple of weeks ago I talked about the backfire effect and I posted about that which is a psychological situation that’s….that study around how human beings resist or embrace change changes and ideas and that sometimes when you try to give people new information it backfires and they…they hold on to the original information harder despite whatever science or…or logic that you taught to them.
So these are all interesting things and I’m….I’m just you know going grocery shopping and thinking about this stuff and….and I already announced that I said that reminds me I’ve got ice cream in the trunk of the car that I have to get home before it melts. So I’m going to leave it here which is food for thought and…and the final question like what is your digital life, your timeline history? Say about you as a as a human being in real life because I think some people think that their digital life shouldn’t actually really count towards who they are in real life and like the digital version of “Hey, I was just joking. It was just a meme.” But I do think that that stuff for some people who you are digitally, is a representation of who you are in real life. So, we…we are holding people accountable in real life for their digital presentation. What do you think about that?
Alright. That’s it. I’ll leave you before the ice cream melts. Mwah! I adore so many of you and share these videos and leave your comments and I’ll see you tomorrow. Bye!