Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Facebook- Other Things to Beware of

We all know by now that posting embarrassing pictures of ourselves on Facebook is not wise. Potential employers, future bosses, etc. can all find a way of seeing these if they really put their minds to it. One mishap- just one picture of drunken sloppyness, and we could lose many opportunities.
But in addition to this, I think many members on Facebook must take into account what groups they join, and what pages they become fans of. It may not always be the first thing we think of when we are trying to cleanse our profiles for employment reasons, but it is just as significant.
I highly doubt that an employer will appreciate a potential prospect who is a member of "I can bullshit thru anything" or is a fan of "I hate stupid bitches," or "Mom, we're smoking weed and having sex...not hanging out". All of these are real pages on Facebook- I looked at my cousin's profile and found them. He has plenty of other "inappropriate" ones too. The next time I see him, I might have to tell him get rid of these.
This all shows that even though these groups and pages are funny, just like those photos of you doing a keg stand, it just may cost you a whole lot later on.

3 comments:

  1. I forgot to mention status updates too. A facebook friend I have, who went to the same high school as me, updates his statust almost every hour and most of them tell about the joint or blunt he is going to smoke after he gets off the computer. Another caution!!

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  2. You make a terrific point of being aware of what sites or pages we become fans of. It's certainly a new concern we all must have. But it is an interesting debate over whether an employer can look at your pages your fans of and decide not to hire you because your a fan of Barrack Obama or something else.

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  3. Excellent point, and caution. The proliferation of fan pages in part compensates for the fact that groups are not so effective, as people have to actively choose to go to them to see new posts. But they also reflect the fact that Facebook is becoming more commercialized and impersonal. But all of these affiliations say something about who we are, even if it's just that we're careless about accepting the invitations.

    As a friend of mine put it, we need to think about online hygiene.

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