How Social Media Can Affect Privacy and Employment

The right to privacy is a value in American culture; however there is no Constitutional right that protects an individual’s privacy. Everyone has an opinion to what privacy means to them; personally I feel that privacy is the information about myself or my family that I do not want others to know. When individuals choose to expand their space or allow things to become public on the internet or digital media, they are allowing themselves to be viewed by others, and therefore relinquishing privacy. When individuals post images and opinions online they are unaware that the post may limit future employment opportunities. People need to be conscious of the possible impact that social and digital media may have. I agree that privacy should be a personal choice to determine. It is our responsibility to post information about ourselves that represents who we are as a whole person. How an individual portrays themselves should be the same online as it is off. When applying for a new job you are prepared for the drug testing, and the background check; however it never crossed your mind that this potential employer may also run a check on your Facebook page, Twitter page or any social media groups you may be associated with, “75% of recruiters are required by their companies to do online research of candidates, and some 70% of recruiters in the United States report that they have rejected candidates because of information online” (Rosen, pg 1). Social media may therefore; break your chance of landing that higher paying position, an example of what employers are viewing on social media is photographs. By posting photos on social media pages, Jennifer Preston states in her article, “Social Media History Becomes a New Job Hurdle”, that potential and current employees have posted pictures of themselves with weapons and marijuana plants and employers have also uncovered that prospective employees have used Craigslist to search for narcotics. Preston also commented that people posting nude pictures of them would initiate an employer to withdraw a job offer, one such occurrence happen to a woman who applied for a hospital position. Employers are also finding individual’s offensive comments; for example, people making “racist remarks or anti-Semitic comments” (Preston, pg 1) are not being considered for a position. Comments can suggest that you do not like a certain race, therefore causing unwanted tension in the work place.
By running the background checks employers are not looking to invade anyone’s privacy, but to narrow down the best candidate for the position. With the increasing volume of personal information being posted to the internet it is impossible to avoid not seeing the entire negative with the positive. It is debatable that it is the right of an employer to gather information from the internet and social media to make a decision about an individual’s job-related experience. “The Fair Trade Commission, after initially raising concerns last fall about Social Intelligence’s business, determined the company is in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, but the service still alarms privacy advocates who say that it invites employers to look at information that may not be relevant to job performance” (Preston pg1). However, in my opinion an employer should not consider the private lives of individuals and how they conduct there day to day lives away from the workplace. People are taught to compartmentalize, when at work leave everything else at the door, when you walk out that door leave work behind you. This too should be the consideration an employer holds when searching for a candidate for employment. A person should not be judged by their personal decisions but by their work ethic, when being considered for employment. The federal government has established laws and guidelines set forth to eliminate discrimination based on race, sex, religion, etc. If an employer cannot ask personal questions in an interview, they should not be able to search for the answers on the internet; this is still considered a violation of antidiscrimination laws (Preston pg 2). Therefore an employer should keep to what currently works the original face to face interview. An interview is the perfect place to meet someone for the first time; this allows a cordial introduction, as well as discussion about past employment and current ambitions. You can connect with people by interacting with them, how can you accomplish establishing an opinion of someone if you cannot feel there expressions, hear their tone, and see their gestures. All of this can be accomplished with an interview, not by viewing their social profile. Employers are also firing people for their posting comments about their job on social media, “a 16 year old British girl was fired from her position after posting on Facebook, “I’m so bored!!” (Rosen,pg1). It does not stop with employers searching the internet for information about individuals social media backgrounds, the Border patrol uses it to research individuals attempting to enter into a country, “A Canadian psychotherapist tried to enter the US but was turned away at the border and barred permanently from the US after a border guard’s Internet research uncovered that the therapist had written an article describing his experiments with L.S.D.” (Rosen, pg1).
People feel that the internet is a place of freedom of speech and that they should not be reprimanded for their post. Individuals freely post information on the internet because they feel that it is easier to reveal themself, “The fact that you can’t see or hear other people makes it easier to reveal yourself in a way you might not be comfortable with. You become less conscious of the individuals involved, less inhibited, less embarrassed and less concerned about how you will be evaluated” (Justice, pg6). The consequences are not considered by individuals posting their life on the web. They do not feel that they will be evaluated by their post or association with an agency by an employer or anyone else. People should reflect on what they post, Sherry Turkle states in her article “Living Online: I’ll Have to Ask My Friends”, that “Self-reflection depends on having an emotion…but only sometimes sharing it”. We live in a world where everyone is connected when an individual post something online they are accustom to getting instant gratification and tells the individual how to feel. People should reflect on their emotions prior to posting, they should disconnect and process information which may help make a better decision prior to posting information on the internet. If individuals thought prior to posting they may not have to suffer consciences of not landing that dream job, losing their dream job or denied an opportunity because they chose to post inappropriate information about themself online. The internet is an amazing tool that allows us to connect globally. The power of the internet is enormous as well as the information that is always accessible to anyone, but just because you mark the settings to private does not always mean that is. Greg Kratz states in his article ‘Social Networking Affects Work/Life Balance’ one of his readers tweeted, “technology is just a tool, and like any tool, it is up to me to use it correctly.” Individuals must be responsible with the technology they have access to. They must be aware of the positive aspects as well as the negative ones and try to protect themselves against them. If individuals apply for a position and they grant the permission to perform a search on their internet actions they have no one to hold responsible but themselves for the post, pictures or associations that the prospective employer uncovers. I agree that privacy should be a personal choice to determine. It is our responsibility to post information about ourselves that would represent who we are every day, not who we are at work or at home, but as a whole person. How an individual portrays themself should be the same online as it is off. In closing the person that an individual portrays online may not be the same person at work. When searching for employment the actions that one chooses to post online can have ramifications that may cost them their current employment or the promotion that they have worked hard to achieve. Something that everyone should consider is, “say it forget it, write it regret it”. The internet does not forget anything; it is always there in the data base, always retrievable. With the ability to archive everything on the internet the possibility that someone in the future may be able to access the information that you have posted online is mortifying when you consider all the information that one has posted. It is the same as looking back into your memory at that most embarrassing situation and thinking about what you should have done differently. You cannot change what is already done and trying to mend or erase what you have posted is the same concept. If you want to be perceived as the honest, responsible, and hardworking individual that you know you are, you should try and uphold that image online as well. It should not be held in question by the post or pictures online. In my view, privacy can only be determined by each individual because the meaning is different to each person. Therefore the invasion of privacy would also have a different meaning to each person. The images and posts that each individual places online that may be scrutinized by employers are also the choice of each individual, Although they should consider how the images and post will represent them as a whole person and realize that once it is placed online it is there forever.

Reference Page
Preston, J., (July 20, 2011) Social Media History Becomes a New Job Hurdle, www.nytimes.com Rosen, J., (July 21, 2010) The Web Means the End of Forgetting

Justice, E., (Sept. 27, 2007) ‘Facebook Suicide’ only Way Out for Some Web Addicts www.foxnews.com Kratz, G., (Jan. 2, 2012) Social Networking Affects Work/Life Balance www.deserestnews.com

Turkle, S. (Sept. 2006) Living Online: I’ll Have to Ask My Friends