ABSTRACT
The use of social media by young people in the workplace is no doubt a new frontier in debates about young people and their legal rights in relation to social media. Much of the discussion in previous chapters about how social media is constructed in relation to young people focussed on the utopian and dystopian views of social media. These views in effect suggest that when young people utilise the ‘good’ parts of social media they will become more productive citizens in the future, while becoming trapped by the ‘bad’ aspects of social media is likely to jeopardise that future. This is the space where it is said that online trashing of one’s reputation by posting ‘inappropriate’ images on social media may result in difficulties in gaining employment, for example. The equation seems very simple at one level – harness while young the positive features of social media and become comfortable with the new communications technologies, and so become a reputable, skilled and productive employee as an adult. On the other hand, sliding into the abyss which is the dark side of social media is likely to make young people find life very hard as an adult. The dystopian view is as harsh and dramatic as that.
