I am active on Facebook and Instagram. I used the feature on Facebook that allows you to see your page as someone else sees it, and I viewed my page as someone who is not friends with me would view it. The things I share and the statuses I make are not publically viewable, which is reassuring because I tend to be rather lax with what I share in terms of political posts and posts with expletives. I only accept friend requests from people I know who are not in positions of authority (such as employers or professors). None of what I post or share is offensive in my opinion, though I am aware that everything can be considered offensive to someone, so I could probably stand to be a bit more sensitive about that. If a journalist were trying to dig up dirt about me, and they were not friends with me on Facebook, they wouldn’t find much. All they can see are my profile and cover photos. A few of them are political, but only one (in my opinion) can be considered offensive (a cover photo featuring a cat and the words “Nov. 8: Pussy Grabs Back”). If a journalist were checking my Facebook for dirt, all they would find is that I have political opinions that I share pretty readily. This could be viewed negatively by an employer, however.

Next I checked my Instagram. My Instagram is set to private so everything I post can only be seen my followers. For this reason, I treat my Instagram much like I do my Facebook. The same issue from my Facebook arose with my Instagram. A couple of my posts are definitely political, and one can easily be considered offensive (a political poem with several expletives). I should probably delete that.

I have a Twitter, and it’s public, but I only use it for class. I know I have another, but I don’t remember the username or the password and it’s on private and I never use it, so I found this to be a challenge to investigate.

I’m not sure what the exercise means when it asks me to review the social media sites of my “first-level friends,” but I did give consideration to the people I am friends with on Facebook in general. I’m not one to remove or block any people or posts which don’t align with my viewpoints, so I have a pretty good mix of people I am associated with online. I almost never comment on anything anyway, and when I do, it’s never political, so no one would find anything particularly partisan.

Though I tend to be more lax about the political things I post and share, I am cautious to ensure that no incriminating photos of me are posted. I untag myself from anything unflattering (don’t we all?) and I make sure I don’t post anything that could be considered sketchy.