As a new parent, nothing brings me more joy than seeing the smile of my little girl. So as a family, we take pictures of her, and take videos of all her firsts (first steps, first words, etc). We literally have hundreds of pictures/videos of all of her most precious moments. And with the easiness of social media, we don’t have to wait to share them with all of her extended family–just one quick post and they can all see it. Sounds like a great way to include family and friends in precious memories right?
However, when Kyra Pringle decided to share a photo of her daughter, who has a rare Chromosome 2 Duplication, she became a meme. It brought to light how many people abuse social media and can really be cruel.
Another example is a fighting video that was posted of Ashawnty Davis, a 10-year-old, who later killed herself after being teased about the video.
Perhaps you’ve heard about the 16-year-old who also took her own life after a leaked nude picture of her was making its way around her school.
Unfortunately, when we share, we open ourselves up to both the good and the bad that social media has to offer.
It’s literally the world that is watching. And within the world, as you know, there are some people who just don’t care, will take advantage of you, and those who just downright don’t like you.
MUST READ: The 7 Times You Should NOT Post To Social Media
If you choose to share via social media, do it as safely as you can but understand the risk involved, even with sharing among people that you know. Here are 3 tips:
1. Use a watermark.
A watermark on all your pictures can prevent or at least deter someone from using your pictures. It could be your family name, your favorite saying, or some sort of visible and recognizable background image that would be good to see.
2. Make your pics private.
Social media privacy settings are constantly changing (you know those long agreements that none of us ever reads, but we click “OK” anyway), so you need to make sure that your pictures are set to private.
**PLEASE NOTE**: sometimes your privacy settings are different on your mobile device and your laptop, so be sure to check that both are set to “private.”
3. Just don’t share.
Sometimes an email or a picture in the mail is a little bit more personable. If your picture is funny to you, but could be misunderstood by someone who may not know you, the best thing for you to do would be to just not post it in the first place.
QUIZ: Is Social Media Hurting Your Sex Life?
At the end of the day, you are proud of your children, family, etc, and want to share that side with the world to see how awesome they are, but in reality, we need to protect our family in this digital world. So share with caution.