Online social networks and inappropriate posts

[maril]

I was thinking about the inappropriate language I noticed in others' posts on FB: For example, one posts that her boss is a ****head, another posts about his private parts and all the women he has had; you get the idea.

If it were me, I would be a bit concerned that these comments might come back to haunt me.

Separately, in the past, I had heard news of how some of what people had posted when on social networks had affected chances for potential employment; not sure of the validity of that.

 

[klmno]

I'm sure if I read a FB page like that and interviewed that poster, I would not want them working for me. We all vent sometimes but if I'm in the mood to disregard professionalism, then I'm not going to make it public. I can't see myself going to the extreme your example went to though, under any circumstances.

That being said, I just recently started on FB but don't think I want people from recent work environments on my page. I keep things set to "friends only" for that reason. It seems like anything written always has the potential to come back and haunt us.

 

[AnnieO]

Hmm. Gee on fb I only belong to one group - that's my HS reunion group. Only negative thing I've posted was about other people not having lives and poking theirs into mine, back in HS.

I may not like my boss, but I'm not going to post something bad on a public site with my name on it!

 

[maril]

klmno: Like you, I have limits set on my FB account - I've set privacy settings in multiple areas under profile info to "only friends."

StepTo2: I actually have "friends" from a variety of age groups; in general, people I know well in addition to some I hardly know, who live in my community; not so sure it was such a great idea to "expand" like that, lol. Anyway, I like being able to go on and see what's happening and only participate by making comments to friends here and there or an occasional private message to a friend of mine.

The posters in my above examples are young adults; maybe they are naive.

 

[Star*]

Whats fb?

 

[maril]

Oh, sorry - FB is Facebook.

 

[Star*]

Snicker to myself - (duh Star) I'm SOoooo with it. (groovy - thanks)

Yeah I knew that. lol

 

[AnnieO]

LOL - yeah, I have friends in their 60s right down to 20s. No teens - only one I am really interested in is Onyxx and she hates FB.

I just think many things are not good to say publicly. It's like profanity at work - nope!

 

[DazedandConfused]

I worked with someone who did something like that and it got back to the boss. Very awkward and it most definitely affected my outlook on this person, too.

I try to keep my FB light..

 

[Nancy]

There are stories everyday about people who have been fired, denied admission to college, or suspended from school for things they wrote on their fb's. Police depts in many communities regularly check fb. I have told my difficult child many times that when she puts something on fb it stays forever on the internet. It isn't smart to post pictures of underage drinking or wild parties. It may come back to haunt you.

Nancy

 

[maril]

Adding to what Nancy posted, I have found info at (guess I have too much time on my hands today, lol): http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/147457 (article from August 2009).

 

[totoro]

That's why I don't work!!! Snicker snicker snicker!
OK that and the fact that I am sometimes way tooooo unstable, maybe I should check what I post on FB (what is that)?
Sometimes I black out and post things and then come back to reality and don't remember, well then I can blame it on the BiPolar (BP)...
Kind of like when I post on CD, (what is CD)?
That is also why I don't let my Relatives become my friends on FB! actually one of my Brother's and a bunch of my ex-Stepmoms and sister in law's!!! gotta love that!

 

[CrazyinVA]

This is why privacy settings on FB are so important. I know who can and can't see what I post, I don't worry too much about it.. but I also don't post about much personal stuff on there. I keep it pretty light/funny. I only have 2 work friends on my friends list, and they are people that "get" my sense of humor ;-)

 

[DammitJanet]

Not that I work...or go to school...or anything like that, but I do think you need to be careful of things like that.

I have a very low activity Myspace page which I started back when Jamie was in the Marines. I used it to keep up with him up there. I posted a bunch of his Marine pics on there and he also had his page. When he got out of the Corps and was looking for his new job we both censored what was available for viewing. I took down anything that was in the least objectionable. Any of the things with him and the guys showing off in the field and such. I only left up good shots. Things I would be proud for employers to see him as a Marine. I did leave one up of him eating a frog but thats a marine thing...lol.

 

[GoingNorth]

There's a saying that's been around since the beginning of the WWW. "Don't post anything online that you wouldn't want seen on the front page of your local newspaper".

It's still appropriate, and yes everyone from law enforcement to the IRS to employers access FB or MySpace looking for dirt.

 

[Lothlorien]

I'm amazed at the things people post sometimes.
Unfortunately, I tend to curse when I'm mad. The things that come out of my mouth would make any mother want to grab the bar of soap. However, I will not post that kind of language. My neices, nephews, church friends....etc are on my friends list. I don't want them to see that.

Likewise, if someone is constantly cursing on their FB account, I click on the ignore button. I really don't want to read it.

This one girl that I've known since we were little girls posts with curses and all kinds of weird things about getting high and stuff. She friended my aunt (one who raised me) who was best friends with her mother. My aunt is appalled at the things this girl writes. Aunt wants to send her a bar of soap in the mail for her mouth. Why did she friend my aunt if she's writing that kind of stuff? Some people just don't think.

 

[Hound dog]

My fb page is set to private friends only. But when I've got oh.......about 800 friends on there (for games I'm really not that popular) it really doesn't make that much difference.

However...... Someone dumb enough to make posts like that about their bosses deserve to get fired.....do you want someone that tactless and ignorant working for you?? lol

I know that my instructors all hav fb accounts. So far no one in the class has been dumb enough to send them a friend invite. Although several of us are friends with each other. And we are all smart enough not to do our venting over instructors on our pages. Venting is just not worth the risk.

I had a "friend" for a game that I've since dumped like a hot rock. A youngish girl maybe 16-19 yrs old. Posted alot so she always came up on my page. And OMG all she talked about was how she was watching her babies while smoking a joint and boozing it up and droppin' this pill and snortin' that........ And this idot befriends people by the droves for the game........any one of them can be a CPS worker, a cop, ect. What a moron. Yep, she got nixed rather fast. And of course every post was filled to the brim with the foulest possible language. blech!

That said.....the majority of the 700 plus friends that I have for sorority life are pretty nice and thoughtful people. Many of them I've become awfully friendly with and we try to help each other weed out the bad ones.

 

[trinityroyal]

There's a saying that's been around since the beginning of the WWW. "Don't post anything online that you wouldn't want seen on the front page of your local newspaper".

GN, you're absolutely right.

A quick word from the employer's perspective...

In my work, I'm often in the position of being a hiring manager. The staff I hire deal with sensitive, confidential information, and in some cases work directly with clients.

I do a Google search on all short-list candidates, and if any social networking stuff comes up on the Google search, I check it out.

It's definitely something to think about. Everything you do on the internet leaves a trail. You can mask things, but almost nothing can ever really be deleted.

Trinity

 

[DammitJanet]

Trinity...amazingly true.

I have probably told this story several times over the years but not in the past couple.

About a year after I quit my job someone on here I think mentioned "googling yourself" and so I did it. I actually googled my real name. To my complete and utter horror, I popped up. Not in such a lame way as a phone book either. Not on here, not on any message board. I never used my real name online.

No...there I was with my real name, my real address and my real home phone number. All attached to a letter to an editor that I wrote but never sent and it was printed in a paper in the northern part of my state. Nowhere that I have ever lived or even heard of the paper!

The article was a scathing retort at our governors decision to cut back on funding for fraud investigators in social services.

The only thing I can think of is that when I left the job, my ex-coworkers took that letter out of the trash one day and copied it and sent it to someone else in social services and they had it printed and put my name to it instead of theirs. I certainly didnt send it!

Its not there now. I kept checking for years because of my phone number being on it. That bothered me most of all. What I said was the truth.

Kind of odd though. I cant get a nice letter to the editor printed in my own paper but I get printed in one 4 hours away...lol.

 

[GoingNorth]

I have an extremely unusual first name. So much so that there's only about four of us in the country right now.

I do NOT use my real name on ANYTHING online other than placing orders through secure servers.

Yet, if I google the appropriate screen names, I can find stuff I posted on UseNet over ten years ago.

I was followed to this board by someone using my then email address. I had to change my screen name on this board (actually twice now, to avoid posts here being cross posted elsewhere.

I do not and will not use social networking sites simply because it's too easy to track me down.

To make matters even worse, the last four digits in my SSN are sequential, so I've got to watch out for that (identity theft) as well.