As students, employees and employers, social media is an important part of both our personal and professional lives. Personally, we use it to connect with family, friends and express our individualization. Professionally it is a way to network, advertise and promote ourselves or businesses. Meaning, while we interact socially, we must also act in a way that suits our profession. It is important to maintain a professional image at all times on social media platforms since they can be viewed by many. Social media is a powerful tool but can also be destructive if not used properly. Throughout my life, I have witnessed people expressing their thoughts and ideas through social media. Often many people express themselves irrationally because of sudden and temporary emotions. While these outbursts may seem harmless in your personal life, they can affect your professional life. Many times employers will keep a close watch of the online actions of their employees to ensure they maintain the company image. As a child of the millennial generation, I have grown up surrounded by the Internet. This includes the many social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. I understand the importance of monitoring my activities on social media and other websites, like blogs.

The first article, "Hazards of an Online Life," claims that lawyers cannot ignore how their clients use social media. In their article, Tolek and Kelsey, examine three crucial components of social media. Social media is a virtual web-based community. It exists online but not separate from the real world, or as the article says, "in real life." Mistakes made online lead to issues that begin to affect real life, including public harassment, job loss, and lawsuits. Social media is used as a tool to reach people and businesses since it allows users to publish and view information about other users. With each component, they theorize that social media has two sides to it, the benefits and the mistakes. In the end, they recommend that lawyers advise their clients to be careful when using social media and think twice before posting online. Tolek and Kelsey are both lawyers specializing in legal cases of online media and its relationship to employment. Their experience indicates that their article a relevant source of information.

 "Here We Are Now, Entertain Us" approaches the ever-changing impact of online behavior and results of this behavior. The author, Raizel Liebler, claims there should be limitations to an employer's control over social media activity of an employee if it does not affect the company's branding. In the article, she outlines the history of social media and how it evolved from social networking and the progress of social media and its connection to employment. She then examines the current laws associated with social media and employment. In conclusion, Liebler claims that in cases of social media, employers can take legal actions against employees if the post could be seen as a statement from the employer, separating private from professional. One of the article's main examples examines the issues student athletes face with social media as "employees" of the school. Liebler, a professor of law at John Marshal law school, specializes in Internet & Society at Harvard makes her claims about both social media and its legal relationship to employment reliable.

"The Web Means the End of Forgetting," addresses the issues of privacy on the web, especially with social media. Rosen uses examples like Stacey Snyder, a woman whose one online mistake, a picture she posted, captioned "Drunken Pirate," changed her life. These examples help Rosen make his case more relevant to readers since average, everyday people are affected by the issues we all face. Rosen focuses his article on the idea that the web can "never forget," since anything posted online is saved and can be shared throughout the web. Privacy issues are a major factor of social media professionalism. Rosen addresses the need to consider whether there should be laws for web privacy. He presents the idea that public posting may eventually become the norm and we, as employees and employers, will need to learn how to learn how to accept it. Rosen is a writer for a well-known newspaper, The New York Times, and has written several articles on the effects of the digital age. The New York Times is recognized as a source of reliable articles.

The question, how does social media affect people's personal and professional lives, argues whether your professional life should be affected by your personal one especially in the case of social media. Some articles believe that the important part of not allowing personal lives and professional lives to mix on social is privacy, while others see social media as a tool of public branding and, therefore, should be professional. Both sides agree that social media affects real life, therefore, people should rethink what they post online. I believe that the effects of social media use are individual since they appeal to different audiences. There are different pieces that factor into how an individual is expected to appear professional, including their profession. The audience depends on an individual's profession and use of social media. A doctor and a public figure have different ways of presenting themselves via social media. One represents their talents and research on social media while the latter advertises their private life and thoughts. There are many articles that present guidelines for how one is expected to act in their profession, but there are not always articles that present social media guidelines. Through these different arguments, I am given evidence to make my own decision of whether people should be given privacy or act professionally. For further analysis, I would need more examples of social media affecting personal and professional lives. The idea that personal social media effects professional lives are influenced by individual cases since each has different factors that determine the outcome.

