In terms of disgusting behavior, it’s pretty hard to top what happened in Orlando Sunday, June 12. The last thing anyone affected by the tragedy needs is to have to deal with the negative opinions of others.
If you’re a teenager expecting to go to college, and you have something less-than-supportive to say about anything of this nature, I’m here to tell you the last thing you’ll want to deal with is your own negative opinion.
I logged onto Twitter Sunday morning and, amidst the flood of prayers, saw a kid make a mistake that will cost him big time. A kid named Brandon Carney tweeted, “I’d shoot up a gay night club also… Too soon?” At the time the tweet first got picked up, it only had two retweets and six likes.
A Twitter user going by “Alex” captured it with a screenshot, found the school Carney attends and plays football at and took a screenshot of his MaxPreps page — which had his picture posted. Alex wrote, “I don’t think you’ll be graduating in 2017 anymore! Gonna go ahead and SHOOT this message over to ur school.”
That tweet, as of Wednesday, June 15, got 9,667 retweets and over 12,300 likes.
We’re all entitled to our own beliefs and opinions but, contrary to popular belief, your First Amendment freedom-of-speech rights do not always protect you from what happens after you choose to express your opinion.
Trust me, high schoolers: if you put something controversial on one of your personal social media accounts, there’s a high chance someone will find it. You don’t want that trouble, especially with college looming and scholarships on the line.
Here are a few guidelines you can follow to make sure you don’t mess up your shot at the higher education experience you’ve been dreaming of.
Think | If you think someone might take offense to what you have to say, don’t say it. Of course, the exception here would be friendly sports banter that, for whatever reason, the other person starts taking way too seriously.
Keep Calm | Stay away from personal attacks. People love to use Twitter for “trolling” purposes, and these people want to see you snap and say something you’ll regret. The most important thing to remember is that person is only tough and edgy on the keyboard — and probably not in real life. As the saying goes, “Don’t feed the troll.”
Clean yourself up | There are probably some old Tweets and Facebook posts in your history that, looking back, you wish you hadn’t posted. Get rid of them as soon as you can. Colleges, interviewers, coaches and more know how to dig deep into your profiles and find anything these days. Since they don’t always get to meet you in person, these people will perceive you to be the person you present yourself as online.
All it takes is one lapse in judgment to ruin everything you have going for yourself. Don’t make Carney’s mistake.
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.