When Did Social Media Become A Public Ground To Air Dirty Laundry?

When I was growing up my mother taught me that you simply do not air your dirty laundry in public.

Why is that some people seem to think that it is an acceptable practice to do so on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter?  Do they realize that this behavior can and does effect their future employment opportunities?  Not to mention, mom just would not approve!

For business, social media is primarily a branding monitoring solution.  It offers businesses and entrepreneurs a way to market products via a kind of person to person popularity ranking system.  For individuals,  social media is a cost free way to connect with friends, family and co-workers to share personal information.  For employers, it is fast becoming a way to monitor a potential employee before they have even interviewed them.

What you say on the Internet is public domain and can be viewed by anyone and is not an invasion of privacy.  People seem to believe that things you write on Facebook cannot be seem by anyone who is not your friend.  That is not entirely true, although Facebook has some security measures it in no way offers complete privacy.   What you post on a friends wall it can be viewed by others who are not on your friend list simply because they are on the list of your friend.

I have seen this happen often;  a friend is mad at his or her spouse or relative and puts an angry post on the wall or an angry teenager has an all out drama session on the wall of a friend.   It may very well be  that you have taken the post off,  made up and became friends again, but the social media damage to your reputation has already been done.

Friends and family will see you as dramatic and lose trust in fear of having drama done to them.  Let’s face it,  no one wants to be publicly humiliated and should not be subjected to that.

Drama in any social media public forum is never a good idea because it is your online personal voice.  It is your online image and a reflection of the real you.  If you are constantly airing your dirty laundry and fighting with friends and family, leaving distasteful remarks on the wall of others and are somewhat negative, how do you think others see you?  It is not rocket science, it is common sense.

You may think your being humorous but a potential employee may view you as an insensitive jerk who is judgmental and unprofessional and you may very well risk a job or job promotion as a result of one stupid comment you put on Facebook.   There is a great deal of controversy on this very subject right now.  Many people think that employers do not have a right to judge you based on something that you have done in your personal life.  I am not here to debate the topic, only to suggest that it can and does happen.

Be smart,  do not use social media to air your dirty laundry, create drama or make distasteful comments.  Think about it this way, you would not do that in real life so why would you do that on the Internet?

Social media is your brand or voice on the Internet – what does your voice say about you?

Protect your brand~be drama free!

Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mbrateng