We're Bringing it On Ourselves: The Downside of Social Media

How many times a day does something on social media leave you thinking, "why would you post that?" Depending on the people you follow, you may have that thought quite often. What I am sure of is that it is not at all an uncommon scenario for each one of us. There are any number of posts that have left me shaking my head. Take for example: Bro taking his daily shirtless selfie in the mirror #madgains #protein. The 100th video showing a kitten chasing a laser pointer. The random plate of food #VEGAN #paleo???. I have also come to absolutely loath game requests and their accompanying "accomplishments." More recently, however, I am finding that the posts that leave me wanting to beg the creator to take them down are in some way fire service related.

Let me be more specific because, obviously, I am in favor of seeing fire related content in social media. What I do not want to see is firefighters creating their own negative publicity.


I recently saw one particular instance where an individual posted a lengthy rant about their dislike for a citizen they encountered on an incident. There is no denying that there will be times when we are not fond of the people we meet onscene, but when we share that dislike for the entire world to see, it takes things too far. Whether or not you recognize it, firefighting is as much about customer service as a business in the private sector. If an employee at a restaurant were to lash out at their customers, it can be expected that outrage would follow. It is no different for the fire service. These are the types of posts that get people fired, and rightly so. Positive relationships with the people we serve must be maintained.

Most of us can agree that the above example is rather extreme. It is fairly easy to identify the fault in creating such a post. Where many falter, and I do admit that I have been guilty of this, is in the posts that are much more subtle in their damaging nature. When we post a photo of a house on fire with the caption, "best day ever," the public can view this as us taking joy in seeing harm come to citizens we are there to serve. Similarly, there are a multitude of ways that others will negatively view a reference to "being paid to be lazy" or "breaking things because we can." It is important to recognize that even when we don't specifically say it, these things can often be implied if we are careless in our how we present what we do on social media. Finally, I would encourage everyone to refrain from taking their disputes with a coworker to social media. Divisions among the brotherhood are always a morale killer. We have enough issues with others outside of our departments, and we certainly do not need to give them additional ammunition.

Again, I am not advocating to remove all of our incident photos, and videos where we are enjoying our time with our brothers and sisters. There are some significant benefits to letting others see what our profession is all about. It is all just in how we choose to present it.

Social media has completely changed how society operates. By nature, everything is now searchable, and will eventually be viewed. This leaves us with the opportunity to both capitalize on the exposure or screw up a whole lot more often. Prior to posting, the question needs to be asked: how will others view my fire department, and the fire service in general, after this is posted to social media?