Reinvent Yourself and Pursue Your Passion

I have been a social worker for nearly 23 years. The beauty of social work is its versatility and the ability to reinvent ourselves as social workers. Not many professions offer the opportunity to change what we do as our life goals change. I am at a very special time in my life based on my professional experiences, that time in life when many people begin thinking about what their second act might be. This time in my own life has afforded me the opportunity to engage many other social workers at a crossroads.

I have uncovered a new passion, something I am pretty good at, helping social workers explore their own thoughts and fears, and how to help them uncover their own hidden talents and suppressed gifts. What I enjoy most about my work is helping social workers reinvent themselves based on embracing their special talents and gifts, whatever they might be. I feel energized each time a social worker I have worked with decides to pursue an area they long suppressed for fear of failure.

The best part of this for me is that I am still doing social work and my personal gift has allowed me to reinvent myself and pursue what gives me passion. As social workers, it is our job to help others uncover their hidden potential; however, we seldom take the time to explore our own passion and what may make us happy and fulfilled beyond our roles as social workers.

If you are approaching a crossroads in your life, wondering what your second act might be, take the time to reinvent yourself and pursue your passion. You might be surprised to find your special gift may allow you to pursue your passion while making a living doing it.

Cyberbullying Can Happen to Anyone, Even a Social Worker?

Cyberbullying can happen to anyone. I began my teaching career as an adjunct instructor seven years ago at a college in my community. I absolutely love teaching and take great pride in seeing students achieve academic success, especially when they may not have known they were capable. While I enjoy teaching immensely, my students know that I will push them to do their very best; I require regular attendance and class participation.

I became aware of a website called "ratemyprofessor.com", a few graduate students actually told me about it. Nearly a year ago, I became the victim of cyberbullying at the hands of a student. Prior to my cyberbully experience I would visit this website to monitor student feedback once or twice a semester, I rather enjoyed the comments as they were pretty positive. I never thought I would become a cyberbully victim.

 The comments my cyberbully posted were relentless, blatantly untrue and extremely hurtful. Yes, even though the comments my bully posted were untrue, I couldn't help but wonder if the students reading these comments would believe them to be true. I found myself becoming increasingly embarrassed and almost consumed by the thought of my colleagues reading these statements. My cyberbully posted over 20 comments in just a few months; he poorly attempted masking his writing style. His writing skills and comprehension were very poor, and I actually felt badly for him. I love technology, and couldn't believe my reputation was being "slammed" in such a public arena as the result of a disgruntled student. 

As the semester progressed my visits to the website had become daily fearing what the student would say next. I eventually decided it wasn't mentally healthy for me to hide in the shadows and fear my student cyberbully. Afterall, I am a social worker! I had been victimized in cyberspace, but refused to be bullied in the real world; his behavior in the classroom became more bizarre and his mental health questionable. He was not passing the course (he would fall asleep in class and was often inappropriate during class discussions) and it was important to me not to change the way I engaged him. I challenged his inappropriate behavior in class when warranted and gave him the grades he earned on assignments regardless of how his posts escalated.

After the semester, I contacted ratemyprofessor.com the old fashioned way, I mailed a letter to their Office of General Counsel. I provided them the name of the student and asked that all posts from his IP be removed. Surprisingly, approximately 1 week after sending my letter all of the negative comments posted by my cyberbully had been removed; shortly thereafter I received a letter from the website's legal department informing me of the outcome.

I am pleased this personal case of cyberbullying ended as it did, my professional self esteem was restored along with my teaching reputation. I take comfort in knowing my cyberbully was confronted by the website and that as an educator and social worker I remained true to my professional values and ethics. It is not always possible to directly confront a cyberbully and cyberbullying can occur among children and adults.

As a result of this experience I learned that cyberbullying can happen to anyone, even a social worker.

Living In The Matrix

By day I am a social worker, but by night I become a self proclaimed tech hound. Recently, I have begun learning more about internet addictions and how careful those of us who love technology must be as not to become engulfed by the very thing that brings us recreational and professional development, technology. The over use of technology can be addictive. One can spend hours, and hours surfing websites, learning about the latest tech gadgets, communicating with others in cyberspace, and losing touch with reality.

Living in the Matrix is about losing sight of reality (what is really important) given over stimulation from all things tech. I have found the more efficient we become as a result of our use/reliance on technology, the more activities we attempt to squeeze into our day. As a social worker, I recognize the importance of unplugging and taking a step back when beginning to experience over stimulation from technology. However, some of us aren't as aware and the use of technology can be seductive and even destructive.

For some individuals with addictive behavioral/personality traits technology can be increasingly problematic.
Emerging research argues that technology can be as addictive as drugs/narcotics and/or alcohol. Some individuals with regular over exposure to technology can even experience physical symptoms when attempting to curb technology use.  I ask that as you enjoy our wonderful world of technology (Facebook, Twitter, Second Life, Farmville, etc.), that you engage responsibly. If you feel compelled to engage in tech-based activities, and find yourself feeling euphoric once you engage, you may be developing pre-addictive behavioral characteristics. If this is the case, identify someone with whom you trust to talk about it, or seek the assistance of a professional. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_xdt8agVrs&sns=em

Technology has enhanced our lives for the better, but let's engage with a level of emotional awareness. There is no substitute for engagement outside the matrix.