“Good intentions can often lead to unintended consequences. “
– Tim Walberg
The other day I was doing some readings for the MALAT program. My kids came into my office with a concerned and scared look on their faces. They told me that someone (a kid, but I won’t provide a description), came up to them while they were at the playground and asked them if they wanted candy and to follow them. This person than left laughing with their friend.
Out of an abundance of caution, I taught my kids (nine and six) how to deal with these rare situations. Although they understood that this may have been a joke, it scared them, and they avoided the park.
Part of my Digital Identify Plan is to embrace reaching out to my network and community. Although this is not a situation I planned on commenting about, it served as something that would help take down the anxiety barrier of posting on social media. Let me tell you, my anxiety concerns were validated.
Here is my post:
To the person who talked to my kids at the park on Serop Crescent while you were walking through the trail to Jeep crescent at 3:30pm, Monday May 13th. I have taught my kids to be careful around strangers when by themselves. In an abundance of caution, I taught them how to deal with potential luring situations. Myself and my kids do not find it funny that you approached them, offered them candy and asked them to follow you. My kids are now scared and do not want to play at the park. Although to you, it may have been meant as a harmless joke, it was not, and the kids do not understand this. Although the luring is unlikly, it’s difficult to explain to my kids, the difference between a stranger who is joking or serious. Do not do this again. Although we live in a safe community, my kids now think it is not and are confused. Psychological harm is not funny.
To me this post was straightforward; my goal was was to reach out to my community and let the kid be aware that even though they thought of this as a joke, it did real harm. In hindsight I should have said that it was likly a kid who made the joke.
The comments came in fast, within a few hours I had ten comments and many reactions. Within this timeframe, I had comments about calling the police and links to other related incidents in the community. Everyone made the assumption that this was an adult; fair, but still an assumption. To resolve this, I made a comment that it was a kid and I didn’t want to describe their appearance. I also edited the post with the following:
*edit* This was not an adult.
This did not help. The following comments still assumed it was an adult and told me to call the police. Then came arguments and racist comments. This has since been deleted, and I will not share the details as I won’t give that nonsense any platform.
So, within 24 hours of making a post with good intentions, my post fostered fear, arguments and racist comments in my community. I received phone calls and text messages from family and friends about the situation.
My wife told me I posted on the wrong platform and that my goal of reaching out would never work as the younger generation is not on Facebook. This tells me that perhaps my anxiety is related to my understanding of the platforms and my expectations not being well set. My fear of social media must have some from somewhere and it may be due to this misunderstanding of my audiences on which platforms I use
What did I learn?
Facebook as a social platform has no place in my future. It appears to be full of anger and fear and very low engagement in regards to reading actual posts. My anxiety in social media will only get worse if I make this sort of mistake again. I need to conduct research into various platforms to understand the quality of engagements and the potential target audience.
References
brainyquote (n.d.). Unintended Consequences Quotes. Retrieved May 18, 2024, from https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/unintended-consequences-quotes
OpenAI. (2024). Person at laptop, perplexed by intense social media reactions. https://chat.openai.com/
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