A Thought About Social Networking

In my recent job hunt, I've had the pleasure of meeting lots of great, professional people. Mixing it up at social events, job fairs and interviews has introduced me to wonderful folks I probably never would've had the pleasure of chatting up anywhere else.

One thing I've learned is that everyone is insistent on jumping aboard the social networking train, which calls to mind a saying espoused by Spider-Man.

"With great power comes great responsibility."

After much tweaking of my LinkedIn and Twitter profiles recently, I began to think that these sites everyone perceives as so great are both beneficial and destructive in equal measure. They open doors for you by putting your name out there in front of the people making hiring decisions. They also put your thoughts, feelings and personal interests out in the open for scrutiny and judgment.

It's quite chilling when you think about it. How many people have been in situations where an e-mail has been misinterpreted or misunderstood, only because the offended party was not present to hear the vocal tone or inflection of the writer? Now we are all opening ourselves up for all to see, with not only our personal predilections out in the open, but our thoughts and feelings as well.

It is true that now we are at the mercy of a great tide - the Internet. All we can do is use our gift of common sense and police ourselves as best we can. But who doesn't think twice about who may be offended these days before clicking "publish post" or "tweet?" It's even scary to think that one must educate their children at age 10 to be careful about what kind of information, thoughts or personal opinions they put out there. All a prospective employer has to see is, "Partied all night at Roscoe's," before tossing a resume into the garbage, but do they stop to think if the post was made 15 years ago, when the applicant was a high school student? Who knows how long the stuff we post will linger out there? Why should erroneous posts made in the heat of passion or as a fun-loving teenager live on into perpetuity to compromise one's chances of earning an honest living?

I'm not down on social networking by any means. I just like to think and ruminate about all sides of the equation. How many great future musicians have been lost to time, now that the Internet has all but destroyed music sales? Nobody mourns what will never come to pass, but perhaps they should. Unfortunately we repeat the pattern of ruining things first and longing for what once was, before trying to rebuild ala The Lorax.

Best of luck to all who find themselves looking for work, and remember to use social networking carefully and responsibly!