Recently there has been a lot of talk about social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, and the privacy issues associated with them. These are sites used mostly by teenagers and young adults to communicate and post pictures; however, employers are using the sites to investigate potential employees. The main things they are looking for are "drinking habits/drug use, nudity, general sleaziness, and criminal behavior ranging from shoplifting to violent assaults".
This has generated a lot of controversy. Students who use these sites do not usually think about a future employer checking them out when they are designing their webpage. This practice brings up the issue of how much or little privacy one should have when making a webpage. I am undecided on the issue. It makes sense that anyone with an account on these websites should be able to look at other people's profiles and I do believe that if you put something on the internet, then everyone has the right to look at it, similar to a diminished expectation of privacy. However, I do not think that people should be judged by their internet profiles. Facebook and MySpace pictures often have things that many companies would not find appropriate, but the behavior presented in pictures on these sites is not a good predictor of behavior in a work environment. The way a person acts depends on their surroundings and employers should realize that no one is going to behave in the same manner at a party and at work. Also, in terms of drinking, many students drink while they are in college; however, once they graduate, they usually stop or cut back dramatically. Social networking sites are poor determinants of professional behavior and employers should not take them into serious consideration when determining who will work for them.
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