There was a nice collage of screengrabs of facebook posts calling the Japanese earthquake and Tsunami some kind of payback for Pearl Harbour which proves beyond a doubt that people don't only post nice or reasonable things on Facebook. Plus it's not hard to make a fake facebook account.

It's a Gannett-wide thing, subby.

Deeply stupid of them.

The ones who use the facebook comment sections are usually the most racist and hateful people, so I'm okay with their idiocy being outed along with their real name.

Meh, they can have my data. I stopped posting shiat shortly after signing up, and even when I did it was just inconsequential bullshiat like movies I like and recycled jokes from....here.

/I'm okay with someone paying eleventy kabillion dollars to find out I like "Inside Man" and "Spy Game".

I'm torn between never using Facebook or finally giving in and making up a fake identity. I wonder if Frank Reynolds is already signed up.

stewbert: I was ok with using my name when writing an actual letter to the newspaper opinion section. Back then it, it was still fairly anonymous to do so.

Not ok with using Facebook to comment on things. I don't even comment or join groups that have people I don't know. Lots of folks claim to use FB to research job applicants, and I might want a new job someday.

I manage a recruiting office--we routinely search FB, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google on all job applicants. And by "we", I don't mean just my company--I mean almost every recruiter on the face of the planet. Now, the good news is, if we really like you for the job, we'll tell you to clean up your profile or at least set it to private. The bad news is, if we were on the fence about you & there are photos of you doing a keg stand or updates about how you hate your job/boss/customers/co-workers, we'll toss you into the circular file. Not so much because we disagree with what you posted--it's that you were dumb enough to post something that's viewable by everyone.

/Has a Facebook profile & Twitter account.
//Under an alias
///Only LinkedIn is under my real name and I'm very particular about what goes on there.

Dr Dreidel: Is there any way to get a free consult from a concern like yours? I know what my FB settings are, and I know what pops up if you google me, but I have no way of knowing how companies see that.

I'm assuming no one cares that I ate a 2kg hamburger, and my FB is set to private (and other than scatological humor/bad words/risque topics/a little politics, there's nothing objectionable on there - I tend not to post about people, especially not people who piss me off), but I've also done some writing that shows up under my name. Do companies care if you're political?

How do I know what to change?

It's mostly common sense and it'll typically change depending on the type of position. Right now, our job orders run the gamut from office assistant for a construction company to a senior chemist for a pharmaceutical manufacturer. The office assistant gets a lot of leeway--nobody's going to care what her political affiliation is or if she moonlights at Hooters. The chemist would require a lot more scrutiny but, even then, political affiliation won't matter. The only time that has EVER been an issue was when this one guy's FB profile was littered w/birther crap. Although he interviewed well, we didn't want to deal with anyone that out of touch with reality. If some political stuff you've written shows up on a Google search, it really won't matter unless it's way out there on the lunatic fringe. Or, if we know the CLIENT has a particular political bias, we'll warn you. (This has happened--a small business owner looking for a bookkeeper was a rabid Tea Partier. We had to tell the candidates not only to make sure they scrubbed their LinkedIn profiles of politics but also to make sure they would be able to work for someone with really extreme political views.)

If your profile is set to private, companies can't see anything more than the average public can. We have no magic password to get around the settings. But you still have to be careful about what friends tag, though. A friend of mine is a VP of a Wall St. company who's a huge Star Trek/gaming nerd. He has a standing order not to tag him without asking first and still has to keep an eye on his profile in case someone forgets. If someone has a public profile & tags a photo of him, everyone can see it until he can untag himself. Not that he engages in anything too out of the ordinary--he just doesn't want the rest of a Fortune 100 company knowing one of their VP's dresse as a Klingon or is in the middle of a 3-day D&D marathon.

BurnShrike: Compared to what? You can't use any text mark-ups (bold, underline, italics), nor can you edit your posts. You can't post images, videos, or 'friendly' links (it just show the entire URL).

this is no longer true.

WaltzingMathilda: BurnShrike: Compared to what? You can't use any text mark-ups (bold, underline, italics), nor can you edit your posts. You can't post images, videos, or 'friendly' links (it just show the entire URL).

this is no longer true.

i should clarify. the bolded part is no longer true.

I have two Facebook accounts. One is my real name, one is not and is used for this type of crap.

Why do people assume Facebook = Your Real Name?

rocky_howard: But like others have said. This is mostly censorship through social standing. It's tantamount to blackmail. "Oh, don't say anything people don't like. You'll get burned."

Like brigid_fitch explains,you can't deviate too much from the median or you're just out of work. It's just the usual discrediting tactics the government has been using for decades. Or is it just me who remembers COINTELPRO? I know I'm not the only one and considering the pervasiveness of Facebook it all looks more and more like 1984.

You misunderstand me. You can be as off-the-wall as you want--for most jobs, it doesn't matter. Just don't be stupid enough to think there won't be real-world ramifications if you don't keep your off-the-wall opinions protected. It's no different than a teacher shouting racist remarks at a crowded bar. Yes, he's entitled to his free speech but don't be surprised if it gets back to his administrators & he's fired for it. FB might as well be that crowded bar and there's only so much you can do to limit who "hears" you.

stewbert: I was ok with using my name when writing an actual letter to the newspaper opinion section. Back then it, it was still fairly anonymous to do so.

Not ok with using Facebook to comment on things. I don't even comment or join groups that have people I don't know. Lots of folks claim to use FB to research job applicants, and I might want a new job someday.

If I am applying for a job and don't get it because of a comment I left on a local newspaper website a few years ago, then I would consider that a bullet dodged. No one wants to work for a psychotic, obsessive asshole.

stevetherobot: brigid_fitch: stewbert: I was ok with using my name when writing an actual letter to the newspaper opinion section. Back then it, it was still fairly anonymous to do so.

Not ok with using Facebook to comment on things. I don't even comment or join groups that have people I don't know. Lots of folks claim to use FB to research job applicants, and I might want a new job someday.

I manage a recruiting office--we routinely search FB, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google on all job applicants. And by "we", I don't mean just my company--I mean almost every recruiter on the face of the planet. Now, the good news is, if we really like you for the job, we'll tell you to clean up your profile or at least set it to private. The bad news is, if we were on the fence about you & there are photos of you doing a keg stand or updates about how you hate your job/boss/customers/co-workers, we'll toss you into the circular file. Not so much because we disagree with what you posted--it's that you were dumb enough to post something that's viewable by everyone.

/Has a Facebook profile & Twitter account.
//Under an alias
///Only LinkedIn is under my real name and I'm very particular about what goes on there.

What if you don't find much on those? I don't have a FB account, I have an unused Twitter account that is not under my real name and all my LinkdIn profile has is where I've worked and gone to school. Google does bring up some info on me, but it is only posts on tech related message boards or listservs. How does that affect the process?

It lessens our work & could actually move you up. If we can't find anything on a candidate, and we're convinced you're somewhat computer-savvy, then we'll assume you've already figured out how to keep most personal data hidden (kudos!) or just don't post anything inflammatory enough to come up in the first few pages of a Google search. If the posts we find are benign (like your tech posts), we don't pay attention to them. As far as my company is concerned, I have a LinkedIn profile, no FB or Twitter, and I occasionally post on NEA forums (I used to be a teacher).

blahpers: PanicMan: Drew, this would make a great april fools prank.

Hahahahahahaha!

If Drew does this, I will find you, PanicMan.

You mean like this? (new window)