Share interests with others.

Social media allows you to share ideas, videos, and resumes with a great number of people. You can also vent your feelings and give and get support from people you know and don’t know.

Social network sites include:

Facebook (www.facebook.com)

A personal “Profile” account and “Friends List” that you set up. You control how much information you want to share and with as few or as many people that you want. Find out about old classmates and friends. Make new friends who have your same interests.

LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com)

A business network site you can use to post your resume, work interests, and skills. You can connect to people you know, to their friends, and to friends of their friends.

Pinterest (www.pinterest.com)

An online pinboard where you share recipes, fashion, photos, and other things that you like with others.

Tumblr (www.Tumblr.com)

A micro-blogging service for blogs that are better suited for sharing things like photos, videos, and links instead of long, text-based posts.

Twitter (www.twitter.com)

An online message posting network to share comments, ideas, and information with friends, companies, and organizations. One use is to get people to volunteer and raise funds for church and community projects.

YouTube (www.youtube.com)

A website that allows you to view, upload, and share original videos.

Unsafe use of social networks include:

• Sharing too much information, including your birth date, street address, vacation plans, and secrets. Thieves and scam artists can use your personal data to cause emotional, physical, or financial harm.
• Spending too much time online. In a study of teens, spending more than three hours on social networks and more than 120 text messages per day was linked with drinking, smoking, and sexual activity. Too much time spent networking was also linked to depression, poor sleep patterns, suicide, and poor grades in school.
• Cyber bulling and spreading untruths
• Exposing children to online predators or pedophiles

Action Step

Don’t post any messages or photos that you would not want an employer or stranger to have.