Last I heard, my wife earned a status of “limited access” to my youngest daughter’s Facebook profile. My understanding is that full-access privileges were revoked sometime last year. I’m not exactly sure what prompted the punitive measures, but I suspect comments about revealing clothes, unsavory looking characters, and/or evidence of activities that might be frowned upon by local authorities could have been the cause.
I suppose I agree with my wife’s concerns. On the other hand, I tend not to scrutinize my daughter’s Facebook wall too closely. It’s not that I don’t care about what my daughter’s up to, but rather I accept the fact that not knowing is probably better for my health. Ignorance is bliss. Or is it?
My daughter is poised to graduate college at the end of next year and is planning to embark on a life in the real world. She needs to be mindful that the presence and accessibility of compromising information on Facebook could keep her from getting the job she wants. The fact that the more provocative material is “private” offers little comfort as an increasing number of employers have been asking job candidates to hand over social media passwords. In fact, momentum is growing in several states to curtail these intrusions, with Maryland being poised to pass the first law prohibiting such requests. Read more: http://tiny.cc/0fv2cw
Personally, I am astonished by the hubris exhibited by employers who feel that asking for access to private personal information is okay. I also began to wonder if it’s just me or whether other people feel the same way. Therefore, we queried 1,508 people nationwide about their attitudes regarding the rights of employers to ask for passwords from job applicants. The overall results were what I expected – a large majority (72%) feel that employers shouldn’t have that right. What I didn’t expect, however, was just how much attitudes would differ between older and younger people. While more than four-fifths (82%) of respondents aged 50 – 64 disagree that employers should have password access, only 54% of those aged 18 – 29 feel the same way.
All I can figure is the younger set who were nurtured on Facebook and My Space are accustomed to having the details of their private lives out there for everyone to see and giving employers permission is simply not that big a deal. Or perhaps there is just a greater level of naivety about how the details of one’s private life may be fair game to deny someone employment. Maybe we will do a follow-up study to check my hypotheses. It also will be interesting to track this issue over time to see whether the “que sera sera” attitude of younger people will change as they grow older.
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