No upside to posting on social media

TechGromit

There are more stories of people who suffered bad consequences of posting stuff on a social media sites, I avoid it like the plague. Any posting I do is with an alias, that can't be easily connected back to me. If I say I hate people of a certain gender or racial ethnicity my employer may view that as negative publicity for there business and fire me, no freedom of speech protections. I can understand if Martians walk into the place of business and I say, "We don't serve no f'ing Martians here", than yes my employer can fire me for the bad publicity there business could suffer, but if I say I hate Martians on my Facebook page, how can they hold that against me? There really no upside I can see, to sharing your opinions or political views on a social media website. I can't say I ever heard of someone that posted on a social media website and was offered a job except of something like linked-in. But there's lots of stories of people who said something politically incorrect and were fired over it.

boxerboy1168

we are probably entering a new phase where you can't hide anything and everyone will be able to know everything about you with augmented reality at all times, a global sync

TheFORCE

You see it on LinkedIn too, people congratulate others more often that criticizing them. They try to avoid arguments even if they dont agree. Most people that post just want to kiss ass and constructive criticism is looked as negative for the poster.

Iristheangel

It's a different world from when most of us were kids. These days you get TMI about friends, coworkers and family in a way that's different than other generations prior to ours. Things that probably would never have come up in conversation irl are blasted on social media (racism, sexism, politics, religion, etc, etc, etc) and we all learn wayyyyyy too much about each other without even asking.

Honestly, I have social media and I share fun stuff ("Ohhh I'm labbing today!" or "We're out at this fair and look how fun this is") but I try to avoid politics, religion, etc because there's enough of that noise out there. I don't want to know about my coworker/friends/etc beliefs that may offend me if they aren't bringing it up in person because I'm human and it's going to ultimately color how I feel about them. Plus you generally don't want your coworkers, future employers, etc googling that crazy anti-Trump or anti-Obama meme or that random sarcastic meme about women getting back in the kitchen - even if you were just joking and your sense of humor is "non-PC."

Iristheangel

TheFORCE wrote: »

You see it on LinkedIn too, people congratulate others more often that criticizing them. They try to avoid arguments even if they dont agree. Most people that post just want to kiss ass and constructive criticism is looked as negative for the poster.

Heh, I agree with you on this but I don't really mind either. I think Linkedin is supposed to be more of a professional networking tool and a living resume more than anything else so if the post is not used to promote yourself in positive ways, there's always other social media for that. Most of my posts on there have been promoting projects I'm working on or my blog with the rare exception of maybe a couple times in the past where I was critical and well... that got some interesting exposure for sure.

SaSkiller

Just don't say anything foolish. I use social media very often, but I consider how my words may be viewed, And if I post something i'm prepared to defend it or take responsibility. Just like I am with what I say in person. That and my facebook is not really open for people to see. At most they will see a few posts on twitter. Mostly security related.Although I do follow an adult film actress so that could come back to bite me, but if thats what its about, i'll gladly go work somewhere else.

NetworkingStudent

Did you guys see this?
Texas teen complains on Twitter about starting 'f*** a** job,' gets fired | Daily Mail Online

How to lose a job BEFORE you even start: Teen fired after complaining on Twitter about starting 'f*** a** job' at pizza parlor

Read more: Texas teen complains on Twitter about starting 'f*** a** job,' gets fired | Daily Mail Online
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Iristheangel

SaSkiller wrote: »

Just don't say anything foolish. I use social media very often, but I consider how my words may be viewed, And if I post something i'm prepared to defend it or take responsibility. Just like I am with what I say in person. That and my facebook is not really open for people to see. At most they will see a few posts on twitter. Mostly security related.Although I do follow an adult film actress so that could come back to bite me, but if thats what its about, i'll gladly go work somewhere else.

Completely reasonable and I don't think following an adult actress is anything bad. Most companies/employers/etc aren't going to go deep past the initial public stuff on your social media so as long as out and proud as a crazy or anything, you're safe. The nutty thing is when people are just BLAST it on all social media and then later complain how hard it is for them to find a job. Someone I used to work with is like that and all I have to do is browse to his facebook to be like "Yep, that's why you're not getting a job, bro."

Iristheangel

One upside to social media: Marketing yourself. For example, if you're a content creator or want to generally participate in the industry, social media can be positive in terms of advertising. Personal example of this for me is my blog. I only advertise through social media (Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin) and I get over 300K pageviews a year and over 100K unique visitors:


For a technical blog which isn't as sexy as something like a fashion blog, those aren't bad numbers from JUST using social media as a means of advertisement.

NetworkingStudent

I'm pretty quite on social media. I use Facebook to keep up with family and friends. People don't call each other any more.

I hardly ever post anything at all for fear of back lash, or an employer might see it.


I use Linked in for more networking and building/displaying my brand. Again nothing controversial either.

CyberCop123

Interesting thread.

I left Facebook permanently about 3 years ago. It used to make me quite anxious whenever I would see I had a notification. I felt really visible there for some reason.

I left twitter permanently about 4 weeks ago. That was because I was sick of hateful, opinionated idiots having such a platform. It used to just make me angry

i left Instagram also 4 weeks ago. Fed up of seeing people's pictures of lunch or at the gym, or online personalities saying to see their latest YouTube video. Or girls posting pics of them pouting and posing. It's also really really shallow, and when you think about any of this it just means nothing.

My my life has improved since leaving twitter and Instagram. I use my phone now far less and it's just less "noise" around me.

LinkedIn - I am on there but don't post. In many ways this is worse. The sheer numbers of pretty selfish, ignorant recruiters who post about an "exciting opportunity" and private message/spam you about it. It's full of people who think they're far far more important and valuable than they really are. I've seen so many ridiculous posts like "I told my team to leave early this Friday as they've exceeded all targets".... wow great, seriously.... no one cares.

E Double U

I stopped checking my Facebook years ago after I was caught up in a round of layoffs two employers ago. I didn't lose my job because of social media use, but it made me evaluate how I spent my free time. I used to check it several times a day to make sure that I didn't miss anything and that wasn't very productive. I replaced that with using downtime to perform a learning activity (studying for certs, watching TED talks, etc). Outside of sharing my family's annual photo shoot I have not been active on that platform. I do use LinkedIn daily because of the information that comes across my feed plus I even found my current job on LinkedIn.

jamesleecoleman

I've seen on LinkedIn where people sort of act like it's Facebook. Gosh, I even saw a guy put "ebonics" under a skill.

I don't think that social media should be a way where someone gets fired unless they're talking bad about the company. I get the whole "connection" thing and the "representative" thing but shoot, a lot of people aren't not getting paid for that. Yes, I do understand that could impact the company, depending on where the persons position within the company is at and I do understand that it doesn't mean that someone can act a fool while wearing a name badge or a uniform that has the organizations name on it.

To me, it seems like organizations are trying to take away the freedom of speech and try to enforce control outside of the organizations boundaries.

hiddenknight821

I don't rant about work-related stuff on social media at all. However, I do take my rants to Twitter about sports when the refs make the wrong calls or the teams run the wrong playbook. Although, I haven't rant much about it since I started working. I always wonder if employers can use that against me, believing that I may be a hostile person when it's really not their place to nitpick on something totally trivial.

NetworkNewb

jamesleecoleman wrote: »

I do understand that could impact the company, depending on where the persons position within the company is at and I do understand that it doesn't mean that someone can act a fool while wearing a name badge or a uniform that has the organizations name on it.

To me, it seems like organizations are trying to take away the freedom of speech and try to enforce control outside of the organizations boundaries.

I don't even blame organizations that much, it is the public that is forcing organizations to do it. If you see someone post something negative towards a group or even an idea that someone else has. Some one is going to correlate that view point to the person's company and think "Well, this person has X view point and they work at Y company. So Y company supports that idea/viewpoint by employing those people. I'm not ever gonna use that companies service". It doesn't matter if most people don't process the information this way, if only a few do think this way they are still costing the company money. And the amount of things that people take offensive and criticize others for is absolutely insane.

I usually get just get upset when I go to social media sites and see how much hate towards each other and over tiny things that are out there. Which is a shame cause like Iris pointed out they can serve a good purpose. And I actually like seeing people's "fun" posts about random things.

scaredoftests

TMI in so many posts on social media. I'd much rather post a funny thing rather than anything else.

SteveLavoie

My rules.. I dont post anything on Facebook that it would bother me that anyone on earth would know. Some prospective customer went to my Facebook page, and finally told me, that I am either too dull guy or I have an hidden life lol. I posted only family stuff, IT stuff and cooking/BBQ stuff (I do BBQ cooking competition), so nothing to be nothing politically incorrect.

Queue

I recently saw a "friend" I had on Facebook in public. The thing is the person had been blasting political memes and re-blogging everything like it since last year. My reaction toward them was extremely awkward, because I realized I dislike this person now. I couldn't hold back how I didn't like them through gestures, even though I tried to remain friendly. I imagine stuff like that happens a lot.

Fulcrum45

With all the malice and venom being being tossed around anymore I sometimes go back and forth about deleting my FB account. The only thing that prevents me from doing so are old military buddies and distant family. To that end I keep the account fairly private and any posts made are infrequent and blatantly innocuous. I think it's unfortunate that technology has caused so many to barricade themselves in old ideas and prejudices only to lash out at everything and everyone else.

UnixGuy

This is nothing new, keep your social media light and fun - period. It's not a place to vent and go all emotional in reaction to random (questionable) news pieces reported by twitter handles.

You want to discuss religion/politics, do it in person. Or don't do it at all, because it's a zero sum game.


Also, at the risk of sounding like the thought police of this thread, I'd say, just don't 'hate' anyone mate, life's too short for that...if someone have a different/weird point of view..remember that it could be you, we're all susceptible to the influences of our environments/upbringing, too many factors are out of control such as who our parents are and where we grow up...

redsteel

Yeah, I cut ties with FB a few years ago. I get back on every now and then to check out some stuff, but lets be honest . . . it was a way to connect with people and now, its just a really crappy news feed. ALL social media has become a dumping ground for people's problems. It was like an animal that was small and cute and strange when it was small, but it has grown into this monster that no one can tame.

cbolar

I use Facebook and Twitter for the sole purpose of news. Anything outside of that is a waste of time in my opinion. To each is there own. Like any other platform, you'll get out of it what you put in and use it for.

xxxkaliboyxxx

cbolar wrote: »

I use Facebook and Twitter for the sole purpose of news. Anything outside of that is a waste of time in my opinion. To each is there own. Like any other platform, you'll get out of it what you put in and use it for.

Isn't the news on Facebook part of the problem?