Tuesday, May 18, 2010

What do you post on FB?

There are some great stories in the news about job applicants who got busted by prospective employers for things they posted on their FB pages. Sometimes it is directly related to the job and sometimes it is just irresponsible behavior that makes the applicant look bad. As a result, we are all becoming conditioned to fear posting anything questionable.

But how questionable is questionable? One of the purposes of social networking is to communicate and bond with your friends and colleagues. Part of this process is about sharing. If we become too afraid to post personal stories, feelings, or other content, perhaps we are losing out. Maybe the benefits outweigh the costs when posting minor transgressions. If companies really don’t hire you for something that may be questionable but is rather minor, perhaps you don’t want to work for them anyway.

I am interested in hearing about where you draw the line, or where you think the line should be drawn in general. Post in the comments.

1 comment:

Many masks said...

there are something that you announce to the whole world and there are some things that ought to be told only to a few people.

Grasping the idea of what is personal and what is public chat has still not reached people.

When GOogle buzz started, we did not realise any conversation between two people is open to ALL.

How do you get people to read instructions and rationally choose between private emails and public posts? somewhere there lies the problem in my opinion