rybeezy

I was looking through the February issue of Money Magazine and came across an article discussing the “MySpace Generation”, the creation of online profiles, and their potential affect on future job prospects.

The assertion of the writer (Scott Medintz) is that people (kids in particular) tend to be more forthright online, sharing everything from gossip, photos (sometimes risque) , their political views, to their most intimate thoughts. All of this is being done without any consideration being given to the long-term consequences of doing so. Medintz wrote that online profiles could potentially serve as “shadow resumes”, with more companies going to the web for information when performing background checks. With Google’s caching and the Internet Archive’s recording of web pages, content that has been long been removed is often times still retrievable.I guess my view is that if it’s out there, it’s technically fair game, so use some common sense when sharing anything online. That said, I also think it’s relatively easy (and not that uncommon) for someone with a vendetta or simply out of boredom, to impersonate someone else on the web. I don’t see how companies will be able to mine the web for information on job applicants and factor it into their decision as to whether or not they are going to hire that person. Without knowing the intent, context, and ultimately, the validity of whatever “dirt” is found, how can it be seen as anything other than hearsay?