How Social Media Can Cause Career Problems
Technology has opened many new doors in society. It influences medical care, travel, communication, and numerous other factors in everyday life. With the increasing technological advances, many devices have been ushered in that has made it easier to keep in touch with people all over the world.
Social media is one outlet that has greatly expanded in recent years. Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and numerous other websites now make it possible for users to keep in constant contact with each other. While these social media platforms make it easier to keep in touch with friends they also may cause problems in your career.
Facebook is probably the most well-known and widely used form of social media so we will focus on it in this instance. There are over 1.5 billion regular users of Facebook. That means over 1.5 billion people regularly log into and use Facebook on a monthly basis. That is a lot of information in one place. You can find people’s pictures, relationship status, birth date, and many other personal details in one place. There are many users that document their entire day from start to finish using Facebook. While to many that may not seem like a big deal, it really is.
That big party you went to last weekend with all the booze and shenanigans, yeah those pictures are on there. Hey maybe your fighting with your ex and you’ve been having an online battle, it’s all there in print. Did you go to jail last week and your friends were talking about it? Well, guess what, that is on there too and your future employers will more than likely see all of it.
According to a recent Harris Poll over 50% of employers check social media accounts.
That means that when you go for that big interview after you graduate, they already know what type of things you engage in. If they ask you questions and they know by your profile that you are lying it isn’t going to fare well for you. Also, if you have a job and you are doing shady things that are put out on social media, your boss may see it. So next time you play sick from work don’t update your status unless it says you are in bed resting.
So next time you are logging in to social media, think before you type or post. What you do today can cause issues in the future. You don’t want what you think is personal to become very public in your future workplace.
