Both kids and teens spend a large amount of time on social media. In fact, a 2019 Common Sense Media survey says that social media accounts for between 5 to 7 ½ hours of teens’ time every day. You might say No Way! But if you think about how many times each day you glance down on your phone to see, react to, and post on social media, you might actually have to admit that the time can add up. Not to mention that chunk of time you spend scrolling before bed or during a break from working on class work. How do you make sure that your social media profile is not just secure but is representing you in the most positive light?
Most students who attend school online know that their privacy settings in their social media accounts should be set to restrict who can see their accounts. And if you didn’t know, then it’s time to get that fixed because you don’t even know who’s reading your posts or looking at your photos. Protecting your privacy is an important skill for teens today.
Excel High School is all about an online presence. Our classes are 100% online and we’ve taken special precautions to make sure our students are safe while they’re working on our classes. But other than taking care of your privacy settings, what can you do to protect yourself?
Friend Requests
One important tip you can easily follow is to be cautious about accepting friend requests. If you don’t know the person and haven’t interacted with them in some other form, then the best way you can play it safe is to flat out reject random friend requests. Your safety is way more important than having a large number of connections on social media. Beyond ending up with a bunch of bots as your friends, you could be protecting yourself from predators as well. Not only that, but cyber-bullying is often done through fake accounts, so doing your part to avoid that all together is your safest choice.
Personal Information
It’s fun to show your friends that you’re on vacation, you’re parents are going out of town, or you’re traveling alone for the first time. What’s not fun is the hard reality that predators actually scour the internet for this type of information in order to commit crimes and interfere with your safety and security. People have been saying “think before you post” since the first social media site came into being, but sometimes it’s an easy thing to forget. Don’t give out personal information on social media. Don’t do anything that could lead to the unspeakable happening. Although plenty of teens have regretting revealing too much online, you won’t ever regret protecting yourself from threats.
Thinking Ahead
High School is the perfect time to start thinking about your social media profile as an extension of your resumé. Whether you want to use your social media profile to keep track of accomplishments, to remember the dates of community service projects, or to keep in touch with former coworkers, you can use your social media account to promote yourself for college or future jobs.
If you do that, you’ll want to also make sure that you don’t have anything posted online that is inappropriate or could end up being really embarrassing to yourself or those around you. Maybe you went through a really rough breakup or got wildly angry at a sibling. Leaving the rants to your close friends and doing that through text or in-person conversations will make sure you don’t miss anything that a college admissions team or potential boss might see. You want those people to see the best parts of you!
About Excel
Excel Middle and High Schools are fully online, self-paced, accredited schools that offer a variety of programs for 6th through 12th grade online students. If you’re not already a student with Excel High School but would like to learn more, feel free to check out our programs on our website. Still got questions? Feel free to reach out to us by text at 952-465-3700 or call us at 800-620-3844. Our staff will be happy to answer any questions you have and guide you to the best program for your individual needs.
