Facebook Mishaps Won't Fly in the 'Real World'
Why is it that Facebook-ing while intoxicated seems to be the most fun pastime at 3am when returning home from the bar? Or even worse, mobile Facebook-ing and tweeting throughout an entire night of partying. Although I am definitely an offender of inebriated social networking, I still consider myself a huge advocate of ‘Don’t Drink and Facebook’, or ‘don’t drink and partake in any social media site’ for that matter. Why? Because I have woken up to multiple ‘favorites’ and retweets of my own drunken blabber and misspellings, or better yet, scrolling down my feed to find tweets that just say, “hdadhu !!". Now that was a good one.
The Solution
Alas! I have stumbled upon a great resource for social media that included a clever solution to irresponsible tweets and Facebook posts via an article by Mashable.com. The article tells of ‘The Social Media Sobriety Test’, a downloadable plugin with customizable settings for a variety of social media sites. You simply set your hours of intoxication and if you try to log into those accounts during those times, you are asked to pass a test before you can access your site. This is quite genius for those of us who thought there was no solution other than leaving our phones at home or hiding our laptops from ourselves in preparation for our return home from our night out.
I may have started one of the first conversations with my current boyfriend of two years through intoxicated Facebook-ing, but maybe that’s just because I was witty enough to make a good joke of it later. So, yes, it has seemed to work out well in my social life because my friends find it hilarious when I tweet, “firhst talihjegate of teh yearrr!!! Come on ober for beeerw pobng!” Through irresponsible social networking my twitter stats skyrocket, but I realize that if it were job offers, they would be doing quite the opposite.
Cleaning it Up
I am by no means a lush or even the worst offender of my extended friend group of this particular web crime. But, I have realized that these social networking sites are already or soon becoming our portals to our future careers and colleagues in the ‘real world’. The irresponsibility on social media sites must end. The end of this chapter in my online life may be just as sad as the end of the college chapter in my real life, but I believe the benefits will outweigh the negatives here. Recruiters are looking through our online profiles and decisions will be based on the way we present ourselves online. We must clean it up, and enter the world that we have been preparing for throughout our educations.
Featured Resource: http://mashable.com/2010/11/07/social-media-sobriety-test/
Page Number in NMDL Resource Guide: Pg. 94
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