September 13, 2008
As a teenager (which was as recently as two years ago), I remember MySpace growing in popularity. About the same time, many parents were becoming concerned with the growing number of teenage girls posting nude or partially nude photos of themselves on the internet. My grandmother would ask my parents if they controlled my internet activity and watched what sorts of things I was posting. She had seen on the news that a girl posted a naked picture online and was later kidnapped, and she was concerned for my well-being.As, apparently, she should have been.While I never posted any indecent pictures of myself online, it had less to do with my fear of being kidnapped and more to do with my fears of: 1) my father seeing it 2) creepy old men seeing it 3) someone from church seeing itBecause even in the most raunchy of stages, I realized that my actions now have consequences later - whether that be something as minor as being grounded, or something as major as losing a job.Tonight, with the posting of one picture, yet another relative of mine has joined the ranks of young women everywhere: she has posted an underwear picture on MySpace. While I shouldn't have been shocked, I was still slightly disappointed. I didn't even ask myself "didn't her parents raise her better than that?" or "What would Great-Aunt Josephine think if she could see this now?" I mostly just wondered if she had thought about any future consequences that this photo could hold.Theoretically, if you post such a picture on any sort of social networking site, the entire world can see it. There are enough hacker sites dedicated to viewing even the most "private" of MySpace and Facebook pictures, that it's just not a good idea to post anything you don't want your mom, your grandmother, or your priest seeing.But now, of course, there are entire news articles dedicated to warning young college students that posting raunchy pictures on MySpace could cost you a future job. I know several businesspersons (how's that for politically correct?) who, before interviewing a potential employee, always do a quick MySpace search for that person to see what sorts of pictures they've been posting. Chances are, if the girl's profile picture was taken in her bra with a beer in her left hand, she's probably not the best candidate for the position.But-but-but isn't that discrimination, based on something we don't even know about her? Maybe she just likes to have fun, and shouldn't a personal life stay personal?Sure, personal lives should be left at home when going in to work, but how many people actually do that? EVERYTHING at home affects your performance at work - whether it's showing up with a hangover because you were out drinking, or showing up exhausted and overtired because your infant was up crying all night. Posting naked or partially-nude pictures online is just another great way to get fired -or not hired- even if it is years down the road.Then again, maybe if we taught logic in our schools, we wouldn't have to blog about such silly things.
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alm77 (anonymous) says...
"shouldn't a personal life stay personal?" Yes, it should. That's why you don't put it on the *world wide* web. Great blog. I've got friends who put up cleavage shots, not just in their "friends only" spot (where that belongs;) ), but AS their profile pic, and then complain cause "life is so rough". Really? What did you expect?
September 13, 2008 at 11:47 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
measles (anonymous) says...
That's why I un-tagged all my cleavage shots on facebook recently when I got my first post-college job. Seriously, there were only a few, and only because my friends tend to be drunken perverts--then again, so were most of my past employers--but taking that first step into professional-world is worth a few sacrifices. Not being an internet whore is a good one to make.
September 20, 2008 at 7:12 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )