Facebook Sabotage

Facebook has become a necessary evil in my life.

I'll probably retract that statement in two years when I realize that facebook really is not necessary in anyone's life (unless you're Mark Zuckerberg). But here's the deal. Facebook was a great way to keep in touch with people from high school, until I kind of stopped caring about people from high school, aside from those who are still in my life obviously.

So after realizing that, facebook served these purposes in my life:

• Avoiding homework
• Creepin on pictures
• Finding out if some hot kid in my class was in a relationship
• Looking at all the cute babies my friends have
• Keeping track of pictures all my friends take

Now Facebook serves this purpose:

• Making sure I don't look drunk in my pictures (even though I'm 21)
• Explaining to my mom that my status was a lyric and not a reason to call 911
• Coming across things in my newsfeed that I don't want to see
• Remaining friends with people that I'm not really friends with
• Making sure my friends don't post something stupid on my wall

So now I'm told by everyone under the sun that my future employer will look at my facebook  and decide whether I am an appropriate employee based on whether I am drunk in my picture. Am I supposed to believe that before facebook people didn't drink? No, I'm pretty sure they did. If I was falling down drunk in my picture I'd agree I wasn't a fit candidate, but simply having a beer doesn't mean I'm an alcoholic. It means I went to the bar on a Friday night and my friends took a what I deemed to be a good picture of me.

To quote my Senior Sem Prof "Your boss doesn't care if you're hungover, you still have to show up and do work". If you don't care... then don't look at my facebook. Because regardless of whether I am hungover or not, you're going to assume I am if you see pictures of my drinking. I am friends with a few of my bosses on facebook and I show them the respect of putting appropriate pictures online (even if they are at the bar) and they show me the respect of not looking for reasons to fire me.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is: I'd like my facebook to be a representation of me and not constantly have to worry about how someone could perceive something I did or said. I'd like employers to read this blog and reconsider trying to find dirt on their staff. Facebook is a social networking tool. Not a professional networking tool. Find me on LinkedIn.