Z世代的“难言之瘾”：雇主盯上了我的社交网络！

Malak Silmi was taking her first real journalism class last January when her professor said something that changed her life: Watch what you post on social media because it might just come back to bite you.

去年一月份，Malak Silmi上了第一节真正意义上的新闻课。课上教授的一番话改变了她的人生:当心你在社交网站上发布的内容，因为它将来可能会反咬你一口。

Silmi's Twitter account at the time was one she'd had since she was 14. It was a public profile with her content ranging from memes and status updates to opinions on foreign policy. But she decided something had to change if she wanted to be taken seriously as a journalist. So, she deactivated it.

Silmi当时的推特账号是她在14岁时注册的。是一个公开的主页，其中的内容包括表情包、动态更新以及对她外交政策的看法。但是她决定一定要有所改变，如果她想作一名被认真对待的记者。所以她注销了它。

"I understand the need to censor oneself, but sometimes I don't think it's fair," said the 19-year-old. "Even liking on Twitter is hard because people can see what you like — it pops up on their timeline even if they're not looking through your account."

现在19岁的她说：“我能理解在社交媒体上自我审查的必要性，但有时我认为这并不合理。就因为人们能看到你喜欢些什么，连在推特上点赞都变得很难——即使他们没有查看你的账户，它也会出现在他们的时间轴上。”

Silmi and many of her peers say they worry about being unable to express any opinions on social media out of fear of self-sabotaging a potential career opportunity. The oldest members of Generation Z are around 22 years old — now entering the workforce and adjusting their social media accordingly. They are holding back from posting political opinions and personal information in favor of posting about professional accomplishments.

Silmi以及很多她的同龄人表示，他们害怕会自我损害可能的职业机会，所以对在网上表达意见有所顾虑。Z一代中年龄最大的成员差不多22岁-正是进入工作并随之调整他们的社交媒体的年纪。他们不愿发政治意见和个人信息，更愿意展示自己的专业成就。

In fact, only about 1 in 10 teenagers say they share personal, religious or political beliefs on social media, according to a recent survey from Pew Research Center.

皮尤研究中心最新的一项调查显示，仅有十分之一的青少年会在社交网络上分享自己的个人观念、宗教信仰和政治立场。

Employers are watching — and asking job seekers to walk a careful line between sharing the wrong kind of information and staying away from social media altogether. These days, 70 percent of employers and recruiters say they check social media during the hiring process, according to a survey conducted by CareerBuilder, a company that connects employers and candidates. More than half of employers said they have not hired a candidate because of content they found on social media, but a similar number said if they can't find an applicant online, they are less likely to call that person in for an interview.

雇主们在看着你——他们要求求职者既不分享不恰当的信息，也不彻底与社交媒体划清界限。根据凯业必达招聘网（一家联系雇主与求职者的公司）的调查，如今，70%的雇主及招聘人员表示他们会在雇用过程中浏览求职者在社交媒体上的动态。超过半数的雇主称他们曾因为社交媒体上的内容而刷掉求职者；同时也有接近半数的雇主表示，如果他们找不到某位申请者的社交网络痕迹，他们让其进入面试阶段的可能性就会降低。

"Hiring is always kind of a judgment call," says Michelle Armer, the chief people officer at CareerBuilder. "Employers are eager to find more information that will support the decision that they're making."

“雇人始终是一种主观判断，” 凯业必达的人力资源总监Michelle Armer说，“雇主们很渴望找到更多的信息来支持他们正在做的决定。”

Silmi realized the only way to beat those employers was not to leave social media completely, but to join their game.

Silmi意识到，赢得这些面试官的唯一方法不是完全远离社交媒体，而是加入他们的游戏。

From the ashes of her old account that detailed her youth, a new one arose: This account was public, too, but it depicted a professional persona that was lacking in the other account. She uses this new account to share credible news articles and the latest updates on her journalism career — with a few sports tweets scattered in between.

于是，一个全新的账号从描述她年少时光的旧帐号中浴火重生。新账号依旧是公开的，但它给了Silmi一个有专业新闻素养的人设，而这正是旧帐号所缺失的。她用这个新账号来分享可信度高的新闻和自己新闻事业的进展，中间还夹杂着一些关于体育的推文。

Silmi's generation grew up with social media. Generation Z, nicknamed "iGen," is the post-millennial generation responsible for 'killing' Facebook and for the rise ofTikTok.

Silmi这一代人是在社交媒体里泡大的千禧代。也叫Z世代，绰号“iGen”，他们是弃用Facebook、青睐抖音的一代人。

Twitter went live in 2006, and Snapchat in 2011, when the older members of Gen Z were only 14. A lifetime of exposure, some experts say, actually makes them the most prepared generation for this kind of social media surveillance.

推特和Snapchat在2006年和2011年相继上线，那时“老一辈社交世代”才14岁。一些专家认为，在这样的社交网络环境中浸淫长大的这代人，对社交媒体监控的准备最为充足。

"In a sense, [Gen Zers] are actually in better positions than millennials who embrace a much more rigid social network, like Facebook," said Taylor Lorenz, an Internet culture reporter at The Atlantic. "Because [Gen Z] has grown up with a lot of these platforms, they are cognizant of their image from the time that they're getting on social media."

大西洋网的网络文化记者泰勒·洛伦茨说：“从某种意义上说，Z世代人的状况比接受着更为死板的社交网络（如facebook）的千禧一代要好，因为他们是在许多这样的平台中长大的，他们从进入社交媒体的那一刻起就意识到了自己的形象管理。”

In fact, Lorenz notes, some children start thinking of their online presence in the third grade. Because of this awareness, they're very careful of curating their online branding. According to Colby Zintl, the vice president of external affairs for Common Sense Media, this opens up a need to teach youth about social media.

Lorenz指出，实际上一些孩子在三年级时就开始考虑他们的网络形象。出于这种意识，他们非常谨慎地策划自己的线上人设。常识媒体(Common Sense Media)的外事副总裁Colby Zintl表示，向年轻人传授社交媒体相关知识的需要应运而生。

"We teach people to drive, how to have safe sex, and how to eat well: the Internet is just another one of those things that need to come with some instructions," said Zintl. Curricula like Common Sense Education's digital citizenship program are working to educate the younger generation on how to use social media, something the older generations were never taught.

Zintl说:"我们教人们怎样驾驶，怎样有安全的性行为，怎样健康饮食：而网络只是其中另一件需要加以指导的事情。”如通识教育的数字公民项目一样的课程正在教年轻人如何使用社交媒体，而这些是老一辈人无法教授的东西。

Because of this extra education and hands-on learning, teenagers are often more savvy of these social platforms than the employers that are searching through them — it's just a matter of making social media work for them, rather than against them.

由于这种额外的教育和实践学习，青少年往往比那些调查他们的雇主更了解这些社交平台——核心问题是让社交媒体为顺应他们为其服务，而不是反对他们。

Some users are regularly cleaning up — "re-curating" — their online profiles. That can mean changing the people they follow and the things they post, or deleting old posts that no longer reflect a personal brand. Cleanup apps, like TweetDelete, exist to help during this process.

一些用户定期清理，或者说是“重新整理”他们的社交网络内容。这可能意味着改变他们关注的人和他们发布的东西，或者删除不再符合自己人设的旧帖子。专门用来整理的app，比如TweetDelete，就是为了在这个过程中提供帮助。

"There's an expectation right now that you have control over your own feed, because you do," said Lorenz. "So you need to be constantly re-curating them."

Lorenz说：“现在人们期望你能管理控制好自己的发布内容，因为技术上你的确可以做到。所以你得定期整理修改这些内容。”

Gen Zers also use social media in more ephemeral ways than older generations — Snapchat stories that disappear after 24 hours, or Instagram posts that they archive a couple of months later.

与老一辈人相比，Z世代使用社交媒体的方式更为短暂易逝——Snapchat上的故事在24小时后就会消失，Instagram上的帖子几个月后才存档。

Where Facebook is usually tied directly to a user's real name and identity, the personas on the platforms Gen Zers use, like Twitter and Instagram, can be altered and controlled. Gen Zers already use a multitude of strategies to make sure their online presence is visible only to who they want: They set their account to private, change their profile name or handle, even make completely separate "fake" accounts.

用户的真实姓名和身份通常直接与Facebook绑定在一起Z世代使用的平台（如Twitter和Instagram）上的用户资料可以被更改和操控。Z世代已经使用了多种策略，来确保用户的在线状态只让那些他们希望看到的人看到：他们将帐户设置为私密，更改或管理他们的配置文件名，甚至创建完全独立的“假”帐户。

Armer of CareerBuilder still urges young people to post with caution at the outset, rather than relying on ways to clean up those feeds.

"I would be hesitant to put anything online that you wouldn't want a hiring manager to see," said Armer. "If it's been on the Internet, it's never really gone."

北美最大的招聘网站运营商凯业必达的Armer仍然呼吁年轻人从一开始就要谨慎地发布自己的信息，而不是依靠其他手段来清除这些内容。

“当我不想让招聘经理看到某些信息时，我会再三犹豫是否要把它放到网上去，”Armer说到，“一旦它出现在网上，就不会真正地销声匿迹。”