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Truth in Unplanned Advertising

Posted 26-Sep-2008 by Robby Slaughter (@robbyslaughter)

The 100 million people worldwide who are now on Facebook and other social networking websites aren’t just talking to each other. Employers screen candidates using online profiles, and even justify firing their workers on the basis of commentary or photographs. The Chicago Tribune reported last week that one in ten college admissions officers admit to surfing for facts to evaluate applicants. The age of privacy is over. Your worst fear is true—everyone knows what you did last night.

Fact and Opinion Checking

Many users of social networking tools like Facebook, Myspace and Twitter login continuously throughout each day, updating profiles and littering electronic messages across the web. Each one is dutifully recorded and timestamped by hidden computer systems, creating a precise log of their actions. If your blog says you ran errands all day but you told your boss you were out sick, you’re trapped. White lies become transparent lies. You can’t fool someone who has all the facts.

Likewise, the 21st century equivalent of muttering under your breath is to hammer out a few choice invectives using a keyboard. The saying ensures us that “everyone is entitled to their own opinion” but that doesn’t mean your opinion won’t be unpopular or fuel an official reprisal. If telling off the boss to his face will get you canned, why is telling off the boss to no one in particular any different? You might feel better about venting in private, but the primary concern here is not the audience, but the attitude. When published online, facts about your behavior and the raw content of your opinions become disturbingly public.

The Standard Advice

In reaction to those who have been “Facebook fired”, a few commentators have offered predictable responses. A 2006 editorial in The Stanford Daily describes reviewing the online profiles of applicants as a “distasteful [and] unethical practice” and advises jobseekers to “temporarily remove private information and photographs” before an interview. Some bloggers suggest changing default privacy settings and others tell partygoers to avoid digital cameras. These proposals seem weak and at most marginally effective. Complaining, cajoling, and dodging photographers is no way to control your image—ask any celebrity.

This backlash is against the use of publicly-available information in administrative decisions. Those words explain the problem precisely—those who love to report their private antics in a public place have no basis to cry foul. This includes, for example, members of the 150,000-strong group 30 Reasons Girls Should Call It a Night. With their usual mix of snark and sobriety Salon.com explains this club “heralds out-of-control drunkenness as a badge of cool” and asks “Why are young women posting blackout photos...for the world, including their friends, classmates and co-workers, to see?” Surely not to enhance their professional notoriety.

Groucho Strikes Again

Whether you believe that Googling in the professional world is legitimate research or snooping, the fundamental problem is different actions in different environments. Some behaviors are inappropriate at work but commonplace among close friends. Federal law prohibits employers from discriminating on the basis of age, but friendship requires acknowledgement of my birthday (and cake would be nice.) Inconsistency creates complexity. Decide to pass on asking favors of the expectant mother and you are considered gracious; decide to pass on a job promotion for the same person and you should expect a lawsuit. The right answer is not clear, but the attraction of both sides makes for juicy controversy.

Solace arrives from another reference to the Groucho Marx Principle, based on a timeless joke from the famous comic. The kneeslapper states: “I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.” Signing up for organizations whose policy includes moralizing on your private life is a recipe for an uncomfortable and uninspiring tenure. If their standards don't meet your standards, you're unlikely to meet in the middle.

What happens in Facebook doesn’t stay in Facebook. Mark your political views, flag your favorite movies, key in fringe conspiracy theories and you may not get that job at the Institute for Ultra Conservative Thought. Such is life after privacy. If you have no apologies for how you spend your nights and weekends, anyone who questions them demonstrates a lack of common values. Affiliate elsewhere. Go where no one judges you any differently than you judge yourself.

Further Reading:

• Also, Facebook makes identify theft easier. Yikes.
• 22% of Employers Check Facebook

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