Our
View: Antics go online, employers may
decline
Students do a lot of crazy things in college, some private, others less so. Visit
the popular Web site collegehumor.com if you’re not sure what some of those
crazy things are.
But now with the advent of popular Internet destinations like Facebook and MySpace,
seemingly typical college antics are preventing graduating students of prospective
futures and more. We need to be careful about what we post online.
These two networking Web sites, in particular, have come under the scrutiny of
the modern media for a multitude of reasons, one of the latest being employers
are using these Internet locales to get a sneak-peek at potential employees.
This means the bosses of some white-collar American companies have caught on
to the online networking bandwagon to see if Billy smoked a little weed at his
university or if Sally paraded around scantily-clad one evening.
But wait, there’s more.
Last week, the USA Today reported in an exposé provocatively titled, “Online
truths & consequences: What you say online could haunt you,” that openly
gay student Michael Guinn of John Brown University was kicked out of school after
school officials viewed pictures of him as a drag queen. It was all too much
for the conservative private Christian college in Arkansas.
Other reported incidents included high school and even middle school students
posting controversial or questionable things online to the dismay of parents,
administrators and teachers.
What do all these incidents have in common? They were published or posted in
full public view on Web sites millions of Internet users access daily. The posters
and publishers using the Web sites erroneously thought their pictures or information
was private or at least semi-private. They thought wrong.
The USA Today quoted UC Berkeley student Danah Boyd as saying adolescents have
always tested boundaries and, “It’s just that now they’re doing
it online, in full public view.”
Boyd summed up the situation correctly. The Internet is now the new virtual watering
hole and town square by which gossip is spread and rumors are thrown about. MySpace
and Facebook, for much of America’s younger crowd, are the means the generation
is currently using.
Given this fact, we all have to have some common sense here. We need to settle
down. All must know the Internet is not as private as it may seem, even though
postings are done in apparent solitude lit by the lifeless glow of computer monitors.
This means crazy photos involving things our society may deem controversial,
such as sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, need to remain private — unless
one is willing to bear the consequences of their release.
If a girl posts a sexy photo of herself online and doesn’t think a concerned
father or potential employer can’t find it, think again. If a guy posts
in his online blog of jokingly doing lines of cocaine and complements the story
with fake photos, don’t think a prospective business firm might find it
as entertaining before considering hiring.
With all this news of wiretaps and curious employers perusing the Internet, we
still do have a sense of personal privacy. But that privacy isn’t exactly
epitomized on MySpace, Facebook or other public Web sites.
So think accordingly next time you, dear Cal State Long Beach student, post something
online. Either keep it on your own computer if you think it might harm your future,
or, on the contrary, post away with reckless abandon if you just don’t
give a damn.
|
