Youtube

[gradstudent765]

Hello,

I'm a regular here but for the sake of anonymity I've created a new user name. In fact, anonymity is the point of this post. So, I've recently been starting up vlogging on Youtube and it's been fun and I'm actually getting a decent number of views. However, I'm concerned (perhaps irrationally) that having myself "out there" might have some negative repercussions. None of my videos are distasteful but some could be considered controversial. As an aspiring academic I'm worried that if someone sees one of my videos and doesn't like something I said or disagrees with me, it could be detrimental for applying to a job or making any sort of connection. Also, as I start to be more "public" on youtube someone will figure out my name, where I live, ect. and only bad things can happen after that.

Am I being completely irrational and worrying for nothing? Youtubing is fun but it's something I can disregard if I have to. I just wanted to see what others thought of the situation.

Thank you!

[studentaffairsgrad]

Hello,

I'm a regular here but for the sake of anonymity I've created a new user name. In fact, anonymity is the point of this post. So, I've recently been starting up vlogging on Youtube and it's been fun and I'm actually getting a decent number of views. However, I'm concerned (perhaps irrationally) that having myself "out there" might have some negative repercussions. None of my videos are distasteful but some could be considered controversial. As an aspiring academic I'm worried that if someone sees one of my videos and doesn't like something I said or disagrees with me, it could be detrimental for applying to a job or making any sort of connection. Also, as I start to be more "public" on youtube someone will figure out my name, where I live, ect. and only bad things can happen after that.

Am I being completely irrational and worrying for nothing? Youtubing is fun but it's something I can disregard if I have to. I just wanted to see what others thought of the situation.

Thank you!

I think you are being completely rational. I recently started a blog about my graduate experience/assistantship and am keeping it all anonymous (not mentioning the school's name, even.) I'm so paranoid, I manipulate small details in my blog entry to throw someone off who might be on my trail! haha. I'm blogging directly about my grad school experience...it sounds like your videos may not be as direct, and less likely to offend someone. I think you just have to use your judgement. Maybe try not to vlog about controversial topics in your field of expertise.

[newms]

Maybe try not to vlog about controversial topics in your field of expertise.

Doesn't that kinda defeat the purpose of being an academic?

[wtncffts]

Yeah, I'd think and hope that academic freedom, and free speech in general, would prevent any negative legal or academic consequences simply because you express an opinion. However, I don't think there would be anything improper, necessarily, in a potential employer or colleague, having seen the videos, thinking more or less of you because of the reasoning and manner of argument therein. If you're confident that you're coming across as an intelligent, reasonable person, and would and could stand behind your comments in person, you should be fine.

[newms]

To the OP, at some point in your near future you are likely to have (if you don't already) a website with your real name, picture and contact details as well as links to papers you've published and quite likely your CV. And it's also possible that you'll be getting emails from people all over the world who you've never met before, or maybe even knew existed. So the life of an academic does involve some level of exposure and openness, but I think that once you can defend your position on controversial issues then you should be ok (and really, if an institution is going to not hire you because they disagree with your positions, is that a place you'd ideally want to work at?). As for the security concerns, I guess that's always going to be an issue (thankfully there doesn't seem to be many cases of violence directed at academics out there), but you can always take steps such as hiding your personal information and only having your professional information publicly available. About your youtube videos, if they get a lot of attention, I would guess that that would be a good thing (unless of course, you have something so wrong lots of people want to see it), so my advice would be to just do your best at them.

Edited June 27, 2011 by newms

[studentaffairsgrad]

Doesn't that kinda defeat the purpose of being an academic?

The OP expressed worry, so I was just trying to offer a suggestion. In a perfect world, people wouldn't hold something you said on Youtube against you, and appreciate that you have opinions and are expressing them, which adds to the diversity of discussion. BUT, if you have a difference of opinion, some people will hold it against you. Especially when they view something you've posted online, and you don't have the opportunity to have a conversation and to educate the person on why you think the way you do. It would be different if you said something in the classroom or at a conference, which provides the correct forum for a conversation about the issue(s) at hand.

I'm not saying academics shouldn't express their opinions...just not sure Youtube is the correct place to be addressing controversial topics. Imagine someone is looking over your job application and they decide to Google you to see what comes up - everybody does it. They see your Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, published research, maybe you put your resume up...and oh...what is this? Youtube videos that the applicant posted. Better hope the hiring manager likes what they see, b/c when you have such a small amount of information to form an opinion about the applicant on (right or wrong, people do it) do you really want controversial videos you might never get the chance to address with the person looking to find info about you out there?

[studentaffairsgrad]

Something else I would like to add...an example of what I am talking about in my post above, from something going on in TheGradCafe.

There was an interesting conversation going on in one of the threads regarding reputation points on this forum. A number of folks were expressing concerns that others were giving people negative points just because they didn't agree with their opinions. The prevailing logic on the thread was that negative points should only be given to a poster who has tried to hijack the thread, said something inappropriate etc. Posters were saying that oftentimes when someone doesn't agree with the consensus, they are voted down, even if the poster had made a valid claim and substantiated their opinion with facts, etc.

Now, I would say a number of academics hang out here on TheGradCafe. Obviously concerns are being expressed that people are unfairly judging posters (giving them negative REPUTATION points) just because they don't agree with their opinions. Some folks also expressed in the threads that they would like the option to see which posts received the negative votes, and who voted them down. Which would 1.) Discourage people from flagrantly voting down well-thought out opinions they just don't agree with and 2.) Allow the poster to engage in discussion with the person who voted them down.

Now, I bet that if there was an option to see who voted what down and engage that person in conversation and make them actually defend why they voted the post down, people wouldn't vote posts down as much for simply disagreeing with an intelligent point of view. Why? Because the people voting posts down couldn't hide behind the veil of anonymity as much.

So, that brings me to the OP's worry that someone such as a hiring manager might see their videos and hold something they said against them. They can be just as snarky as the people sometimes are on TheGradCafe, who vote reputation points down when they feel like it, and harbor prejudices against the OP for disagreeing with them. They can also hide behind the veil of anonymity, because really, who is going to admit they don't want to interview, work with, be around someone because of some Youtube videos. If you brought up your controversial viewpoints when having a conversation with someone, you would have the chance to engage in an intelligent conversation with that person. But if you use TheGradCafe as a case study, SOME not all of the people viewing your Youtube videos will take it at face value and not want to be mature enough to initiate an intelligent conversation with you.

Just a thought.

[Mal83]

Lately I've become much more aware of my actions on social networking sites like Facebook because I am a little paranoid that a potential employer will do a search and not hire me because they don't like what they see, not much into Twitter and I do create videos on Youtube but they have nothing to do with me in any way, just an expression of creativity that is completely free of controversy under the veil anonymity. But if you're on FB or Youtube expressing controversial opinions without that veil you open yourself up to that kind of scrutiny. I think that you should be more worried if you could see any of your statements or opinions moving from controversial to offensive. That's not the impression that I get from what you said you are doing, but you never know how people will interpret things. That's true for any instance of expression, but when it's posted out there on the internet for all to see and access at any time you just open yourself up no matter how careful you think you're being. I try to be careful on FB, my profile is only accessible to friends, but still everyone is so connected and we all have so much personal information on there that it really is a bit of a risk if you think about it. Before I set my profile to "friends only" I had some maniac sending me horrible messages to my inbox and creating fake and offensive profiles with my picture all because he couldn't cope with a discussion/debate we were having on an FB forum dedicated to a TV show. It was just one of those hot button issues and he clearly had a couple of screws loose and took it out on me by doing offensive things. It took a few weeks of emailing FB to get the fake profiles down. I cringe to think if I had been in an interview process for a job and that employer did a quick name search in FB. And yes I was worried that he would actually do something outside of FB like send me hate mail or something, that's how vile the messages were he sent, I felt like someone with the capacity to do that would take things farther than the internet, he didn't though. I mean all you need is a name and you can track down that person through the internet. That's something that I'm more conscious of now when I engage strangers in controversial discussions online, especially in the FB forum where my name and picture are there for all to see. I can be pretty fiery in my expressions, but I just leave it alone when I feel like the person at the other end has the potential to come unhinged. Not that I'm consumed with thoughts like that but it's just in the back of my mind, which is probably for the better. My bigger concern would be potential employers coming across what I've put out there and just not liking it for whatever reason, so I feel like you should be very aware of not crossing the line into offensiveness.

Edited June 29, 2011 by Mal83

[runonsentence]

Having yourself "out there" does realistically (as you say you realize) have the potential to backfire. It could be fine, too, but sometimes it's hard to judge that for yourself (as countless tales of viral YouTube videos have taught us over the years).

Bottom line: it all depends on the nature of your posts. If you're posting about your personal life, ranting about students or faculty, or expressing some opinions you'd hesitate to voice at a cocktail party at a conference, then I would recommend that you tread carefully. Or at least, that's what I would do. I've long ago stopped posting extremely silly things or things that meet the above criteria on the internet myself, in the hopes of building a professional online identity.

But, if you're engaging with subject matter in your field or objectively talking about graduate life or academia, then perhaps you're fine. There's a great post by ProfHacker on the importance of building an online professional identity while in graduate school, in preparation for the job market. I personally have a Twitter, Google profile, research blog, and other items around the web linked to my real name that I keep public and professional. Doing so has already proved useful: Twitter alone has already enabled me to meet a number of contacts at a recent conference.