Digital Citizenship

I found it very interesting the extent to which employers and colleges use one's social media presence to guide their decision in hiring or admitting a person. It was also very disconcerting. To me, my private life should be just that -- private. I don't expect or want an employer looking at pictures of me from friday night. This isn't because they would be revealing in any way; rather, just this concept and this sort of infringement on my right to privacy bothers me. Perhaps this is naive and a self-induced problem. After all, it's my fault that there are pictures online. It's us as a society who've given up our privacy by posting (publicly) so much of our lives. However, as we discussed in class and the Lifehacker article points out, opting for total privacy and sharing nothing of your life online raises suspicions as well. Companies want to find you online in some capacity. I also find this disturbing. In applying for a job, I would hate to be overlooked because I didn't create a facebook page. The New York Times article discusses this concept with regards to college admissions. If social media presence is going to be a consideration for a job or admission to college, then it should be made clear. Candidates have a right to know the criteria by which they'll be judged. It's not only this sort of opacity that I object to. I also don't like that the higher-ups making the hiring/admission decisions don't distinguish between me as an employee/student versus me on Friday night. It's certainly not necessarily true because I drink or party on the weekends that my work would be negatively impacted by this. It could happen, sure, but it's not necessarily going to and it's unfair to assume that it will. I also thought the Mashable graph which showed that recruiters cared more about spelling errors than they did alcohol consumption or references to gun use in social media. This fact just emphasizes the arbitrary nature of analyzing a candidate's social media content. It shows that it really just comes down to obscure, unknown prejudices that a recruiter or employer might have against guns, alcohol, or how poor spelling might be a pet peeve. If these criteria aren't made clear to the applicant, it's not fair to judge them off of it.