COMMENTARY: What’s posted on internet stays on internet

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Kelsey Waters
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  Like a lot of young Airmen, I use social media. Between Instagram, Vine, Twitter and Facebook, my life is publicly documented in a number of ways.

It started out small, from taking pictures of my food at restaurants, to now reenacting "spontaneous" moments because no one captured them on camera the first time, and then checking to make sure the post travelled across social media and everyone was tagged.

Oversharing is the new norm; but while users may think they can use screen names to remain "anonymous," they often forget that Twitter, Instagram and Vine can be, and are, usually connected with Facebook in some way.

Unfortunately, in recent weeks, there have been some real situations of services members behaving inappropriately and sharing evidence of that behavior on social media.

As soon as these stories broke, my Facebook newsfeed exploded with people sharing the pictures and stories of these service members. It seemed to me that as soon as one person shared a photo across a social media platform, it spread like wildfire and often led to enraged comments from the social media audience.

For example, a few weeks ago an Airman took a photo of herself in uniform acting inappropriately with the Prisoner of War/Missing in Action flag. The Internet practically exploded. I had no clue who this girl was, but she was everywhere on my Facebook newsfeed, my Instagram and my Twitter account.

Staff Sgt. Cherish Byers, the Airman in the photo, later took to social media to explain that it was an old photo from three years ago. It seems she forgot that once a photo is on the Internet it stays on the Internet.

One of the things all Airmen have to remember is that while in and out of uniform we are ambassadors for the U.S. Air Force. With the click of a button millions of people around the world can see a photo of you and share it with all of their friends and followers.

One of the easiest ways Airmen can make sure they don't cast the Air Force in a bad light is to remember the following: if you don't want your chain of command, your parents or your enemy to see something, then you shouldn't post it on any social media platform.