*Disclaimer: Everything I am about to say is a matter of personal opinion and should not be taken as fact. Nor can I speak for anyone else. Your potential quarrel is with me and me alone!

I’ve been brainstorming as of late and have been giving a lot of thought to the internet and our presence on social media as it pertains to the SCA. I believe it can be both a blessing and a curse… a “double edged sword” if you will. I also happen to know that this has been a topic of discussion for many.

PROS:

• Gives the SCA more visibility for advertising
• Easy to access event information and figure out the haps
• Connects us to our more distant friends
• Can help us to make those said distant friends
• Gives us better access to dope pictures of ourselves!
• Facebook groups can be great for research and discussing niche topics of interest.
• You can show off your projects and let people see what you’re working on
• Memes.

CONS:

• A bad day could reflect poorly on the SCA
• Provides a forum for public disagreements that can turn ugly
• Without sufficient self-awareness and policing of your posts, your internet presence can reflect poorly on yourself and hold you back from SCA goals.
• It is now impossible to differentiate between mundane and SCA “you”. You cannot escape!

Personally, I would conjecture that the cons, if applicable, outweigh the pros- particularly on an individual basis. So. If we all band together and try to remove, or at least minimize, the negatives, then I see no reason we can’t make social media a cavalcade of wonderful opportunities for SCAdians.

Let’s take a look, however, at some ways that social media could be potentially hurting you. This is not the end all be all list as I cannot possibly dissect the behavior of every SCAdian who frequents the internets.

First of all, let us establish the career metaphor. Let’s say that you are job hunting and a potential employer looks at your page and sees you bashing their company, pictures of you smoking the marijuana cigarettes, inappropriate memes, or basically anything else damning. Is it not fair that the employer will not hire you? Of course not! You are clearly not the kind of person they would like to hire. The same mentality should apply towards Peerages. If you want to be a Peer, you should be monitoring your online behavior to reflect that goal. Shit posting or saying things like “all Peers are buttholes” is (not surprisingly) going to turn more Peers off from polling positively for you. In turn, Peers should also be monitoring themselves in order to maintain their responsibility of, you know, not being a dick per se. Shit posting can get you fired in the mundane world as well as cause a lot of hurt to your SCA reputation.

Let’s go back to this idea of shit posting about Peers. There are multiple ways to do so, and possibly a couple of ways you may not even realize is shit posting. The obvious one is saying “all [Peers] are [insert insult]” and is, hopefully unsurprisingly, a turn off. No one, I repeat no one, is going to say in circle “you know… maybe we all are [insert previous insult]s. We should poll positively for this person for being sooooooo honest!” It won’t happen. Stop trying to make it happen. I haven’t even attended many circles yet, and I still know, for a fact, based on common sense, that insulting an entire group of people is not going to ingratiate yourself with them. There are no safe places online. A screen shot can be grabbed within seconds regardless of group rules of secrecy. Think before you post, because even if you delete something, chances are someone saw it, saved it, shared it, and now you look like a dweeb.

Something that may not be recognized immediately as [Peerage] shit postings are posts along the lines of “I can’t fathom why I’m not a [Peerage] yet! You’ll have to ask them why cause everyone else I know thinks I should be one!” Dude. Please stop. This type of post is literally a form a bullying. You are attempting to bully and guilt people into polling for you.

Are you being a political dips***? Let’s face it. Politics is killing us. It’s just straight up terrible. If you’re like me, you have no problem telling someone they’re being a Nazi/racist/homophobic/sexist/ableist/science denying/etc mofo and click the “unfriend” button. Everyone is enraged and, unfortunately for a select few, their behavior is getting them into trouble. You simply cannot be a closet jackass anymore and have it not effect your SCA play. If you have divisive opinions, chances are that you have lost a few folks. From both sides. Tempers are high and many ideologies that were once ignorable are not tolerated anymore. If you do not want to lose friends or have your politics effect your SCA hobby, simply say nothing. Post nothing political. You know who you are.

I really want to stress one more time that nothing is secret on the internet. It only takes one screenshot to set yourself back. The SCA is a small place and many of the Facebook groups you are in will undoubtedly have people you know in there as well. It does not matter how specific that niche group is, someone will see what you post or at least be informed of it. You are not protected by group rules regarding secrecy and screen-shots. Think before you post.