Silent Reposting & Corporate Social Media Surveillance
A popular internet saying I love is, “Were you silent or were you SILENCED?”
The other day on one of my work-related TikTok videos I saw people commenting “Silent repost” and it made me think of this saying.
If you didn’t know as I didn’t, commenting “silent repost” is when you find a piece of content super relatable, but it may be risky to repost something like that because you wouldn't want your followers to see it.
Many people silently repost things because they don’t want their employers to see the content they like.
This poses a very interesting topic: should companies monitor their employee's socials?
My vote is no. People should be allowed to be people without the fear of being judged by their employers.
Around 2019 I began noticing companies asking for social media handles of prospective hires and I found this pretty un-comfy.
So many people use the internet as their third space for escapism. People go online to be entertained, educated, connect with friends, and find communities they align with. Therefore people should be allowed a sense of autonomy not only over the content they create but also the content they like.
Once the opinions, desires, and passions you have outside of the workplace start being taken into and evaluated within the workplace I feel like a personal boundary and individual privacy is being crossed.
I get it, nothing you post online is private unless you make it so but I think we should live in a world where if companies decide to check a prospective or current employee’s social media accounts and they find pictures of a night out with friends, a personal blog, chit chat GRWM videos discussing their personal life or a dicey meme that employers should turn a blind eye.
We live in a world where more children are desiring to be Content Creators above any other career. Our lives have become so integrated with media that being a creator online and putting out content in some way shape or form is almost a natural part of modern socializing.
For that reason, people should be allowed to express themselves openly (so long as it’s not radically inappropriate or offensive 👀) without employers monitoring their online movements.