I'm not exactly what you'd call an active user of social media. I mean sure, I have 3 tumblr blogs, 1 blogger blog, a twitter, facebook, Google+ and probably some other stuff too. I use it all infrequently though, and tend to be something more of a lurker than a poster. I reblog on tumblr, retweet on twitter, like on facebook.
When I do get around to posting something it is usually either a rant, a quip, a quote, or a link. My biggest source of original content is of course my own life. Being the cynically optimistic pessimist that I am, most of these take the form of either a generalized update on my life that leaves a lot to be discovered, or is a rant full of shit that I'd like to change.
I try to avoid directly mentioning what it is that I'm talking about, so that those people who actually know the details of my life can understand, while those who come across what I've written might enjoy the idea expressed within the rant, or just like my strange ways of stringing words together combined with my shaky grasp of proper grammar. (I learned it from novels, not from school or hard work)
Anywho, back to what this lengthy optimistically pessimistic self righteous rant is about. Every youngish person online has by now heard the warning, be careful what you post on facebook, it never goes away, who knows what will keep you from a job, so on and so fourth. Basically it is the warning that the digital can be a lot more permanent than pen and paper ever were.
Far warning, alright, so don't post stuff that is going to prevent you from being employed, from going to school, don't post pictures of you committing crimes. This all tends to make sense to me. Those with common sense would probably avoid doing this anyways. Those without, well, treat it as a learning experience (for future reference facebook, and all other social networks store all the stuff you post so that they can sell it later, their way of making a profit).
My issue comes from something that your smarter employers are doing now. They are limiting what people are allowed to post online. These smarter employers, who know just how powerful networking is, both online and offline, make their new employees sign onto an agreement to avoid negatively mentioning their employer.
Sounds harmless enough, right? I mean don't shit-talk your boss out where everyone can see it. Now lets take this to a lengthy conclusion before I get all angry and my typing devolves into caps lock and expletives.
Say McDonalds had this policy, made all their new employees sign on. Great, now lets take employee X and torture this poor person. They work full-time at McDonalds. Why? Well maybe they are putting themselves through school, maybe they have debt, or really high bills, or had a kid in high school. Maybe they weren't smart enough to go to college, or had an accident and had to drop out. Maybe they could never afford to go, or couldn't get a job after they graduated.
Whatever the reason employee X is living paycheck to paycheck, like many people on minimum wage. So one day employee X goes into a McDonalds, maybe not their own, but it could be, and gets something to eat, be it burger, chicken, fish, fried athletic shoe for all I care. And they get food poisoning or even just diarrhea.
And so they post something to a friend, a private message simply saying that they can't go out or go see that new movie or whatever, and when the friend asks why, they say because I ate the food from work and now I can't leave my toilet. Let's mention that employee X phrases this better than me, and so the friend screenshots it and posts it to a website like reddit or imgur or tumblr. This gets noticed by employee X's manager, who then proceeds to fire employee X. Or what if McDonalds just continuously purchases the facebook info of all of their employees to look for things like this? Not too expensive, especially for a company that knows how hard bad social media chatter could hit their business.
And presto, employee X, someone going paycheck to paycheck is now without said paycheck. The part that really kills me though is how vaguely worded these agreements can be. Don't spread negative wording about a company online. Well I guess I can kiss any future McD's employment goodbye. But does it also include mentioning that employee X thinks their boss is a fuckwit? That they think employee Z lacks two brain cells to rub together? That they should invest in better equipment? That their health code rating is less than perfect? Where is the line?
I personally want the government to step in here, and protect the little guy rather than the business. People are increasingly getting their socializing from the internet, but with this people can no longer complain to their friends about work.
Many of the people I miss and want to talk to are far away. The only way I can talk to them is online. The only way I get to be social with them is through social media. And now it can be censored by my boss. Scary thought. Freedom of speech, means I can say what I like, but then others can respond however they like as well. Means that if I claim something about someone/some business I need to be able to back it up with proof. I get that, that's reasonable. But blocking opinion? That is not ok. That is censoring a person's private life. Fuck that.
