Cheezhead

I have been waiting it for several years now, and FINALLY just saw it on television for the first time (while I’ve been glued to the TV set watching our Red Sox sweep the series!!!! But I digress… ;)

There is finally a tv ad warning people (kids, in particular) about the risks of posting their entire lives online. I’m officially dubbing this decade the “Most Public Decade in History” because it marks the unique time between a) the launch of the Internet commercially - and the collection of all kinds of information, data, self-publishing, social networking, etc, and b) the point in time when privacy laws, online security, and social norms eventually catch up to protect us from the ramifications of “over sharing.”

We see the ramifications of this Most Public Decade every day at Experience - as we create the bridge between college and the working world, we’ve seen countless students create MySpace and Facebook profiles that share WAY more than they should about last night’s fraternity parties… only to have those profiles viewed by employers, who in turn make employment decisions (usually not favorable ones) based upon those profiles. Whether it’s ethical (or even legal, some would argue) to use those profiles - which almost always include photos etc - as part of the recruiting decision-making process is up for debate… but it is beyond dispute that it happens.

And I shudder to think about the kids who have entered adulthood during this Most Public Decade in History… the first generation EVER to deal with the ramifications of living their lives online in the public domain, of electronic evidence that could conceivably be available forever… and with no comprehension of what the ramifications would be, or guidance about how to safely use the technology. I am a firm believer in freedom of speech, as well as maintaining strong protections of privacy for individuals based on their personal choices of what to share and what not to share. But shouldn’t an 18-year-old who was just being a goofy, gossipy 18-year-old (as we all were at one point!) be able to let his past be his past when he’s 21 and beginning his professional career? Is it fair that his online history is available for scrutiny when he didn’t know the ramifications when he published the info? And even if he did, what if he was only 17 - and a minor - when the info was published…? Or, as is often the case in the world of law, should his actions as a minor be “stricken from the record”…?

These are big ethical questions for us all to consider, for sure. But my hope is that when our social norms, expectations, and laws finally catch up with our technological capabilities, we find a way to let the individuals - especially the kids - of the Most Public Decade retroactively go back and make some of their previously-published materials private. They didn’t have the benefit of being an adult when they published it, and even adults didn’t have the benefit of fully understanding how seemingly “private” information would eventually be made available.

It is a fact that the self-publishing on social networking sites is having a negative impact on many college students’ career paths, closing doors that might have otherwise been open to them. As leaders of the recruiting industry, we should be leading the debate and setting the ethical standards for how this information should - or should not - be used for recruiting purposes during this time of dramatic, unexpected, unprecedented social change. For now, while the rest of society catches up, it’s up to us to make sure that kids aren’t overly penalized for behaving like children.