I came across a study that shows how different demographics of young adults goes about managing their Online Reputation, ( http://phys.org/... ).
Researchers found that—among young adults—men, Hispanics and those with lower Internet skills are the least likely to keep employment-related audiences in mind when it comes to their online profiles. Women, whites and those with higher Internet skills are more likely to actively manage their social media privacy settings as they seek a job or maintain employment.
The first thing that struck me was the Hispanics are less likely to manage their online reputation. I have been reading a lot on Race on The Good Men Project, (
http://goodmenproject.com/... ) and have begun to see race as a construct to continue to oppress racial minorities. I found this correlation between race and Internet Privacy a little depressing. The study went on to say:
Because a significant portion of the young people in this study seemed at risk in regard to privacy management practices, there may be a need for more formal training from career service organizations, libraries and others on best practices for maintaining self-presentation online, Hargittai said.
While I totally agree with the fact that there needs to be formal training in Privacy, and the importance of privacy setting, I think the study also shows an inequality and bias in educational opportunities and world view based on race. The study showed that:
Whites were much more likely than other races to adjust social media profiles at least once in the past year in anticipation of employers searching for information about them.
Many things can be extrapolated about this, but I think that it really points to the systemic inequalities in the educational opportunities available to minorities.
I certainly hope their are more follow-up studes!