Dear Gen Z,

I want to bring to your attention that digital footprint is a real thing, and it will change your life for the worse if you aren’t smart online. I get that going viral on social media is the latest appeal, but we need to think before we post, the amount of harmful videos I’ve come across on Tiktok is actually alarming.

I feel as though we as a generation don’t care enough about the consequences that might come with posting harmful content on the internet. We need to take into consideration that people will be influenced by whatever they see on social media, no matter how dangerous it is. People lose their lives daily following trends they see online, much like Michael Bosworth Jr., the teenage boy in Virginia who died participating in a ding-dong-ditch trend he saw on Tiktok. Although he didn’t think it would be a life threatening challenge, Michael still indulged, thus passing away due to being shot by the homeowner of whom he pranked. It pains me to see kids my age and even younger lose their lives just from following a trend they thought was harmless, just because everyone else was doing it.

The dangers of social media don’t just stop at physical harm, it also threatens your professional life too. When you apply for a job, the employers would usually want to do some background checks on you. This means they will search for anything under your name online to see if you are the best fit for the job. This could be risky if you were to post anything unethical online, as they would find it and deny you the opportunity of a job. This happened to user @Shoomew on Tiktok. She made a post explaining how she lost out on a job simply from a background check. In her video, she talks about how her job interview went well, and how the interviewers loved her. After running a background check, the company informed her that they didn’t want her for the job anymore. To me, it’s refreshing to see that people are learning how important digital footprint is, and that it shouldn’t be taken lightly. 

Putting digital footprint before any stupid decision is something that I want to see within my generation. I want you to really think before clicking the “post” button, as it could change your entire life.

Best,

Indiya