I have to be completely honest, even though sometimes I wish it wasn’t like it is, the importance of Social Media is undeniable in today’s business and personal landscapes. My life has slowly become more social media oriented as the years go by and I thoroughly enjoy using it and thinking of new ideas about ways to use it. Deciding how I represented myself online has also been an interesting process that has changed as I age and as my priorities in life have evolved and transformed.
I came into this class with a lot of social media past. I have worked in Social Media and I am still currently the Social Media Manager for EzTvOnline, although we are currently expanding the team and making some changes in the department.
Being a Photographer for the past 10 years, Social Media has been indispensable to my work and most of my online presence corresponds to my work as a photographer/artist/filmmaker or a teacher, ergo when I came into Children’s Media I never planned to start new accounts on every platform as it would just take me hundreds of steps back on relationships and an identity that I already built and that I did not want to change.
I started teaching in 1994. Before I even had an email account. (By the way, that Hotmail account that you write me at; that is the first ever email account I ever had. Opened in 1995 while I was a student in London. I still use it and everyone who has ever met me has a way to find me.) By the time I got seriously into social media, Facebook, Twitter and post-2000 platforms, I was a working 30 year old who was fully aware that I had a reputation and an online identity that needed to be handled with love and care. Working with children made me acutely aware of this and I have always been incredibly careful of the things I post and how I post them.
In 2008 I stopped teaching formally in schools. I decided to focus on my photography and my art. My social media universe expanded at this time, not only because my occupation had changed, but because the platforms available were becoming a solid part of our lives.
I struggled at the beginning to create a balance between teacher-me and artist-me. Some of the content that I would want to publish as an artist was not particularly appropriate for children… so I was incredibly careful of how I owned which posts were “artistic” or could be controversial, and where I really stood regarding what they represented.
I was always ready to explain why I had posted something or other. To this day, I have never been asked or questioned for my posts. My social media community includes most of my former students (all grown-up and in university) many of their parents whom I always had great relationships with, former colleagues, all kinds of fringe artistic communities that I am interested in, friends and family. and to this day, I am still teaching or working in education related topics.
Now, that I am in my 40’s, I have a very clear idea of what I believe in and stand for and what I think is right and wrong. My posts reflect who I am. I own who I am without any excuses. I have earned the right to my opinions through many years of hard work, experiences and education, heartbreaks, joys, mistakes and successes. If any of my future employers does not agree with my posts or views, I have learned that I probably wouldn’t be happy woking there either. Same way I know that wouldn’t work for an oil company, no matter how good the salary, because it does not align with my beliefs. It is just a matter of chemistry and principle. Not a matter of ego.
There is a space in this world for all of us and we are all happier when surrounded by people who we resonate with. We create better work and we affect people around us in a more positive way when we are in an environment where we feel comfortable with who we are and we can be true to ourselves. I am passionate about living a happy life and creating things for a world where we can all feel happy and comfortable with who we are; to be able to do this I need to own the fact that I am not two people. I am one person. One person with an incredible passion for education and storytelling and I do all that I can to make this world a better place, and for all of us, specially children, to have happier, better lives. My work and my life will always be congruent with my soul and my heart.
I don’t know what the future will bring for me professionally. And I really don’t know what awaits for me personally. But I do know that the two aspects will have to align for me to be happy. My social Media brand is not a fabrication. My Social Media brand is who I am. All that I am. With the tears, the laughter, rants, constructions and all of my humanity. I work hard on being a better person every day. And hopefully my social media brand reflects that.
Turning On The Lights 