When I started Blog Topic of the Week, it was to encourage other bloggers to post regularly (because that gets people reading, I think; who wants to read or follow a blog that was last updated five months ago?) and to get a sense of community going among the pre-vet/vet students over at SDN. As much as it drives me crazy to only ever be surrounded by people in the vet community, I know how important it is that we all stick together. After all, we're the ones who really "get it" when it comes to the tough issues facing our profession and our persons.

But truth be told, I also wanted a way to provide guidance for blogs. I know I feel a sense of obligation to update regularly but sometimes I log on to post and all I can think to write about is school, stress and my impatience to be done with this whole thing. I know a lot of bloggers don't update regularly because they don't have something to write about. So the BTOW thing was a nice way to tie all of that together.

Every once in a while though, something happens in every day life that provides me a good blog topic aside from BTOW. Today's topic is social media and online presence.

Seems that throughout vet school, the pervading attitude from students is that they are perfectly within their rights to post whatever the heck they want on Facebook because they're adults and their friends think pictures of animals or procedures are cool and everything is fine. The administration doesn't roll with that line of thinking though; they have a public image of the school to uphold (and some might argue the image of the profession in general) and we're essentially not permitted to post any pictures of anything - teaching animals, patients, tissues/specimens, etc. - on social media. The general public has complained to administration up here about what they've seen from vet students posted on Facebook and the administration has made very clear to us what we can and can't post. (Nevermind the fact that I find posting of these pictures to be attention-grabbing antics and I don't really respect those individuals who choose to post them.)

Anyway, there was a recent rash of surgery pictures from the current junior surgery students on Facebook and we got a pretty strongly worded email from our Academic Affairs boss lady. A number of people were up in arms, feeling that they are adults and don't want to be told what to do. Which I understand, but in this instance (and in instances across the veterinary schools), it is bigger than you. It's about showing the general public - your future clients! - that you are an exceedingly professional individual who respects the animals and people they interact with. The majority of people wouldn't have batted an eye at the surgery pictures, but all it takes is one unhappy person and you've shot yourself in the foot.

The profession of veterinary medicine is in a rough patch right now, assaulted from all angles. The public are pissed about how much it costs to treat a pet (that's another post entirely...), they don't understand the role of veterinarians outside of fixing your family dog and they are getting mean about it on the internet. The only way to uphold the profession on that side is to be as stringent as possible with social media etiquette, whether it be Facebook, blogs, forums, whatever. There is no room for error and I think many students who post a bunch of stuff on social media don't actually grasp the gravity of the situation, in part because they haven't been out in practice and dealt with people judging them directly.

Life isn't fair, and I wish there were more room for error. But the fact is, students should keep the vast majority of details of their veterinary school career off Facebook. If they want to share what they did with friends or family, I think that's totally acceptable! But I think it should be done over the phone or in person, not available for potentially anyone to see.

On a similar note, I have strongly considered deactivating my Facebook after graduation. On the one hand, Facebook allows me to keep up with my friends all over the place; after school, a chunk of friends will be in Canada where a visit isn't exactly feasible. But especially with my path in lab animal medicine, I just don't think the risks (and honestly, the frustration I get from seeing so many anti-lab animal posts) are worth it in the end. I've thought about LinkedIn though, and will be scoping that out an an alternative.