Social media in today’s time is no longer limited to just the personal life of a person and has spilled over into the professional sector too.
With WhatsApp literally building businesses and allowing one to hold an entire office within one group, LinkedIn being a good place to network and make connections and of course Facebook, business and work are becoming an integral part of social media.
With that, it is also obvious that the problems that hound one at the office would become an issue on social media too, mainly that of harassment or uncomfortable interactions.
One has to wonder exactly where the line should be drawn when interacting on social media between work professionals and acquaintances.
Was It Necessary To Comment On A Mere Photo Upload?
Recently, an acquaintance uploaded a photo on their Facebook profile, and shortly, a random person whom they knew from work, had commented an overly personal comment.
It belayed that the two shared a deeper and closer friendship, when in fact the two had only really met once for an official meeting and not for more than an hour at that.
There had been no other interaction between them apart from that one time, and so him posting such a comment on their photo upload was not only random but also made them feel uncomfortable.
However, because they could be a potential client and to not create a messy business relationship, my acquaintance could not really do much about it.
This is exactly where the problem comes in, where a person cannot even use their social media in peace without the added tension of a work colleague or client seeing their post and making some comment on it.
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Facebook Is No Longer Personal
Facebook is no longer a place to just connect with friends, in fact, rapidly it is becoming an important part of one’s professional life where you have to add almost everyone on your FB.
Using FB for work is really simple and great, and is becoming this big business group where you on one platform you can interact and stay connected with other people of your field, clients and more.
With almost everyone on this planet present on Facebook, it becomes extremely easy to connect with someone here even if you don’t have their contact details like email, phone number etc.
But Facebook is also a place to stay connected with long-lost friends, distant relatives and more since there is not yet a platform that is so widespread and allows people to stay in touch with almost everyone person they have interacted with in their life.
So you can’t take your personal like that is family and friends out of it, and yet the professional side is quickly barging into this area blurring the lines a lot.
Facebook is also important business-wise in order to stay connected with your employees and company groups.
But you still keep using your Facebook as a personal space where you might post jokes, rants, personal and intimate photos and more and now along with that nosy aunt, there is also a danger of your boss or senior seeing them.
Since you can’t possibly deny their friend request if they do send it, and so it creates a conundrum where there is a risk that they could see your Facebook activity and it could spill over into the offline world if they form some kind of a wrong impression of you.
You could say that you could just block the person, but first, how many people can you block and second, blocking is not always 100% effective since some posts always get through from it.
There is also a solution of creating 2 profiles, one that is exclusively for work matters and the other for personal use. But then again it is quite difficult to create and then manage between the two.
The question that comes up now is when should professional contacts stop contacting you on Facebook and blurring the lines between professional and personal life.
Because denying or blocking them is seen as rude and insulting to the other while you also have to protect your privacy as you are entitled to.
Also, who should be responsible, the posting or the person who is commenting and engaging?
Where is the line now between personal and professional now with social media trying to blur the lines so much that as a professional you just have to add your colleagues, clients, work acquaintances and more to your profile since social media has also become important for business.
Image Credits: Google Images
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