Facebook can be Dangerous

Many teens and young adults today have a profile on some sort of social networking site, whether it’s MySpace, Facebook, etc. These are making it easier to connect to large amounts of people faster and faster through the internet. In a way, people can get to know us through social networking sites without even meeting us in person. Think of how many times you go to look up people on Facebook. You may have never seen them before, but you can already gain an idea about what type of person they are based on their profile. Businesses do routine background checks on applicants today, and with social networking being so popular, you can guarantee that they will look at your profile. We, unknowingly, are forfeiting some professionalism to express ourselves in a good social climate. I personally keep a very close watch on my Facebook pictures, friends, likes, and statuses, but more needs to be done. You have to control your actions outside of school. I also try and make sure that none of my friends post pictures on Facebook that could hurt my future. There are many cases where pictures are posted on the internet without a person’s knowledge, and once they are out there, they are there to stay. What makes it worse is that EVERYONE has access to it.
I think that the applicant should have been turned down, although it was not ethical of his friend to post those pictures without his knowledge. The whole situation could have been avoided if the applicant had not partaken in any illegal activities. While it was taken in his junior year of college, once the picture was posted on the internet it is forever there. He was breaking the law, plain and simple. He may not have gotten in trouble for it then, but justice was served. The applicant’s friend should have known better than to post a picture that would hurt his so called “friend”. Why would you ever post pictures like that on facebook? While it was extremely unethical to do this and detrimental to the applicant, the fault still lies with the applicant for participating in illegal activities. The law firm was not in the wrong at all and I believe it was perfectly legal to look at the applicants Facebook. Facebook is a public forum where everyone has the freedom to express themselves in any way that they choose to. Since it is public, you have to be careful of how you portray yourself. The information of the photograph should probably not have been shared with the applicant as it may be against company policy. Then again, I would want to know why I didn’t get the job. Even more, I would want to know if there were such pictures of me on the internet.
“The ''self-image'' is the key to human personality and human behavior. Change the self image and you change the personality and the behavior.” – Maxwell Maltz (Thinkexist.com)
This couldn’t be more true. What image we put on Facebook and other social networking sites is often the image seen by others. Be careful.