I have been accused by friends my age and older that I’m a little overly enamored with and active on social media and, truthfully, I can’t deny it. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, etc. are all places where you can find the digital breadcrumbs I’ve left to let future generations know I was here. In my defense, I am a marketing professional and these devices are the future of my industry.
During my job search in 2011, I was asked the following question in every single one of 20+ interviews: “What should we do about Social Media?” No thoughtful company is without a social media plan these days. Such tried and true channels as brochures and print advertising have slowly gone the way of the VCR and the Walkman. Reaching out to potential customers where they spend most of their online time is always going to present an opportunity for marketers like me.
Of course in my case that’s only part of the story. I am also a natural-born communicator. I enjoy the interactive aspects of social media, reigniting long dormant friendships, keeping up with family members, sharing funny or interesting or stupid insights with an online audience of my making.
But there, of course, is the rub. We all know now that it’s not just my chosen universe with whom I’m sharing my views on politics or videos of the latest Kelly Clarkson performance. It is quite literally, and with no exaggeration, available to anyone interested enough to find out.
Millennials will say that’s the point. Post whatever you want on social media because no stranger cares enough about you to go to the trouble to find it. As a result, there is a proliferation of too personal, potentially embarrassing or damaging information out there that people are posting-willingly, voluntarily, gleefully. There’s the sorority girl whose crazy screed to her chapter went viral, holding her up to global ridicule. There’s a young woman with whom I’m acquainted-a new teacher-who regularly posts her students’ work on her Facebook page and invites friends and family to join her in making fun of them, which is undoubtedly inappropriate and potentially a serious violation of their privacy.
There are-at least among my particular FB friends-grown, professional men who post semi-nude pictures of themselves or overly sexual, not-safe-for-work material on their pages.
Make no mistake: anything you post online could fall into the wrong hands. As not only a social media practitioner but also a senior manager for a global company, I know for fact that people have lost jobs and been turned down for opportunities because something objectionable was found on their social media pages.
Privacy in this day and age is a charmingly old-fashioned notion. To me the issue is generational. I would bet that once the Millennial generation moves into the corner office, there will be a more natural relationship between your professional career and your online life. A hiring manager-undoubtedly with his own Facebook page (or whatever the equivalent will be in 15 years)-won’t regard what’s on your page as germane to your ability to do the job.
But until that time, remember that the Internet is written in ink, not chalk. The things you choose to post about yourself, your friends and your life are like a tattoo. Permanent, and uglier as you get older.
