MySpace partners with Simply Hired. MySpace and Simply Hired have launched MySpace Careers, a job listings site geared toward the MySpace demographic. [CNET News.com]
This announcement pairs up nicely with yesterday's headline from the New York Times: For Some, Online Persona Undermines a Resume. Kids today, eh? They have at their fingertips a whole world of ways to get themselves in trouble that couldn't have been imagined by their parents (many of whom know much less than their children about all the ways available for them literally and figuratively to show their arses).
First, there are the problems of the online predator and the identity thief. MSNBC did an excellent dateline presentation (shown here) about the very little information required to constitute a dangerous case of TMI.
It used to be that parents only had to worry about strangers with candy hanging around the schoolyard. My parents told me not to get in the car with a stranger EVER, period, with or without candy and never to get close enough to an adult in a car to allow them to lay hold of me.
It wouldn't have occurred to me or them to say to a child, "Also don't post a picture of yourself on the internet or any information that would allow a total stranger to identify you (or any of your friends) and track you (or any of your friends) down. In addition, don't give out information that would allow someone to steal your identity for purpose of obtaining a credit card, bank account, or access to any of your money or credit."
Second, there is the problem of the child pathetically attempting to attract a little internet notoriety or peer approval. One college student, desperately in quest of bad-ass status, posted a list of his "hobbies" that [1] would fool absolutely no one, even another 20 year old; and [2] would nevertheless be viewed by ANY employer, graduate school admissions committee, or future spouse as evidence of a serious flaw in judgment and a serious lack of self-esteem. In fact, he was rejected by an employer as the result of a bit of internet posturing by an employer who was previously all set to hire him. Sad!
But also reasonable. In a world where there are many more jobs than people who are qualified to do them, any little thing can tip the scale, and a colossal manifestation of bad judgment and juvenile values isn't really a "little thing." In business, image is everything, and if your prospective employer can find a page in which you reveal the full extent of your ass, so can your prospective employer's customers and business associates.
I think adults often assume that young people understand much more than they necessarily do about the dangers of email, net posting, and so on. I am in a field where I deal with many young adults. Many are surprised to be told (for example) that the email they send through company and university servers isn't private by any standards or that the "terms of use" that apply actually mean something.
They also may post information, find that it doesn't attract any obvious attention, and assume that this means that nobody has seen it or will see it. If you put it out there, children, it's out there. If you put it out there, it's going to be really hard to call it back. And if you post it under your own name and with a big old picture of your face, you've basically told the world, "This is who I'd like everyone to think I am." And that sort of information is way more revealing than almost anything else you could possibly say as evidence of your judgment and your values.
"Never send anything over the net that you couldn't stand to have someone read aloud in court," a person I respect once told me. "Treat an e-mail as equivalent to a postcard." (Thankfully, he told me way back in 1997 before I'd had much opportunity to embarrass myself )
A person posting on My Space, Facebook, or the like should view the posting as a billboard rather than a postcard. It's not a private communication but a virtual advertisement placed on the information superhighway in the hope that people will read it. People traveling that road may give it only a cursory look if they don't have any reason to be interested in you. It may fade into the background. for most of them You may forget all about it. But it's right there for anyone who wants to see it, including people who aren't part of your target market and who mean you harm.
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