Inappropriate Use of Digitial Media

When I was in college, my teammate on the football team really disagreed with a decision that my coach had made in regards to how he was handling punishment for the team. He then went to Twitter to vent about how the coaches decision was very unintelligent and after he posted it, many other teammates saw the tweet, agreed with it and re-posted it on Twitter. My coach then very easily caught wind of this and saw what had been said and done. We then had an unannounced meeting where an important University leader came in to explain how this series of events seriously and negatively impacted our athletic department at the University. Something that seemed so small, ended up being a very big deal for the whole university and every student athlete that was considering the college as one of their choices.

Maybe in this case it would have been more appropriate for the athlete to talk directly with the coach instead of choosing the venue of social media. This is often the trouble with social media--deciding what to use it for...and for students, especially elementary students, they are being held accountable at a much earlier age to choose their words and their actions wisely than has been asked in the past due to the rapid rate at which technology has ingrained itself in our culture.