We’ve all heard the horror story about someone not getting a job because of their employer looking up their social networking account and finding pictures or information about them that lead the employer to decide not to hire them despite all of their great credentials. Many people feel that this is a violation of their privacy. Everyone has a different face that they display to others when at work or out with friends, and I don’t think it’s an employer’s business to explore that alternate face. In the case of social networking, I would define internet privacy as the right to express a social identity that is kept separate from your professional identity and does not affect or hinder your hire ability.
According to Danah Boyd, mediated publics have four properties that are unique to them. Two properties that are effecting those looking for jobs are persistence and searchability. Boyd identifies persistence within mediated publics through the idea that what you say sticks around. This means that something I say or do now while utilizing Facebook is still going to be their when I’m 40. This can be very detrimental because an employer may see something that you said or did and decide not to hire you because of it, even if you have grown out of that stage of your life. For example, say I am looking for a job an my employer looks up my Facebook account and comes across a picture of me wasted at a bar and then makes the assumption that I am a drunk who goes out all the time and is going to come to work late and hung over. This isn’t fare because I am a young college student now. Everyone goes out and has a bit too much to drink every now and then, but we are young this is our time to be crazy and make mistakes. This shouldn’t be a reflection of my work ethics when I’m 22 and entering the work force.
Searchability on the hand, is explained by Boyd by the fact that someone can look up your account and find out where your hanging out and other information about you. With the click of the mouse a potential boss can find out where you go when you are not at work, who your friends are, your sexual orientation, and a multitude of other things that are displayed on your profile. If an employer deems this information necessary to know before hiring you, I feel they are greatly violating your privacy. None of this information should be relevant to an employer. That’s what resumes and interviews are for, to demonstrate to employers what they need to know about you when making the decision of whether or not to hire you.
Since I have yet to enter the professions work force I don't have any specific scenario involving myself where an employer looked up information about me on the internet via a social networking site. However, last year after a bunch of girls in my sorority graduated they deleted their Facebook accounts in order to stop employers from using their accounts as references when reviewing their applications. I found this to be pretty ridiculous. Not only because I find this to be an invasion of privacy, but also because social networking sites enable people to stay in touch when divided by distance and without an account the termination of a friendship is much more likely.
According to news feed researcher, in New York written references could become a thing of the past for managers with one in five saying they use social networking sites to research job candidates, resulting in one in three candidates being dismissed after what they discover. This can be very scary because so many people have social networking accounts that they utilize for social and entertainment purposes without taking them too seriously, and now they are resulting in serious repercussions.
Here are some very alarming statistics provided by news feed researcher that I will leave you with:
According to a survey by online job site CareerBuilder.com of 3,169 hiring managers
。 22 % of hiring managers screen potential candidates via social networking profiles, up from 11 % in 2006.
。34% of the managers who do screen candidates on the internet found content that made them drop the candidate.
。41% of hiring managers sited posting information about drinking and drugs as the reason for dropping a candidate.
。40% of concerns were candidates posting provocative or inappropriate photographs or information.
Citation: boyd, danah. 2007. “Social Network Sites: Public, Private, or What?”
Knowledge Tree 13, May. http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2007/?page_id=28
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