MI- COLUMN: Sex offenders aren't the only creeps reading your Facebook

11-19-2008 Michigan:

As if we need to tell you time and time again, be careful what you post on the Internet.

The Interweb is such a glorious technology that every scandalous picture, every nipple slip, ahem "wardrobe malfunction," every suggestive motion you make with a friend, while intoxicated or not, is available for viewing by the peering eyes of perverts all around the globe. Through the wonder of the Internet, these people can obtain your phone numbers, home address, work address, class schedule, blogs, worst fears and feelings.

The Interweb is such a glorious technology, in fact, that not only the world's sex offenders and pedophiles can pry into your social and personal life, but the information is up for grabs for the worst scumbags you'll ever encounter: Your potential employers.

Yes, indeed. Employers are now using your Facebook pages, MySpace pages, whatever other social networking sites you may be affiliated with in order to get a vague idea of your character. So, unless you believe that your Peter Griffin quote generator, skanky club photos and countless misspellings and glaring grammatical errors in your interests will win over your potential boss, it may be best to give these sites a bit of a touching up.

I must say I was slightly curious as to why it was made such a big deal sometime last year when Facebook implemented access to everybody's pages on Yahoo! and Google, as well as every other major search engine. It now makes sense to me.

On one hand, the Internet is a public forum, and anybody with access is, in turn, privy to any information posted online. It is the ultimate medium of free speech. It allows anyone to post whatever they want and remain anonymous, and it's supposed to be protected by the First Amendment. So long as it's legal, anyway.

Of course, there's always the option to keep MySpace and Facebook accounts private, limiting the possibility of creepy employers to pry in and see what you're doing and thinking while away from the workplace. But these sites are hardly the accurate representation of character that a human relations department expects them to be.

If my Facebook were to be gazed upon by a future supervisor (rather, keeping my fingers crossed for a future editor), it would depict me as a smart-alecky, insolent, womanizing drunk with some clear homosexual tendencies. And while it is all true to an extent, the cameras only seem to be on me when I'm at my most hedonistic. While those close to me would likely call me (if I'm lucky) caring, soft-spoken and an all-around likeable guy, whereas somebody looking to hire me would probably see me as somewhat of a maniac. I do list "chainsaws" and "The Devil" as two of my interests, after all.

The one neat thing about social networking Web sites is that they give you the ability to give off an image that doesn't necessarily live up to the person, and all in good humor. However, nearly all of my superiors, past and present, seem to have no sense of it.

It makes about as much sense to me as using a credit record to judge someone for financial responsibility, or immediately labeling somebody as a junkie for failing a drug test. And employers, if not one or the other, often use both, making them about as key to the hiring process as a cover letter and a resume.

But, the times are a-changing. It's a possibility to track anything and anyone via the Web, and anyone with a computer will at some point be inclined to do so. In order to fend off perverts and lowly employers, it seems the only logical course of action is to completely remove yourself from the radar and delete your Facebook accounts. Or failing that, clean it up a little. Your friends will forgive you regardless. ..News Source.. by Dan Smith