Whether it’s indifference or ignorance, Seaholm students are brazenly posting incriminating photos of themselves on Facebook and MySpace. What they don’t know is those same pictures may cost them a future job.
Wild house parties, underage hands holding beers, smoking and provocative posing.
While some keep evidence of these happenings under wraps, others are flaunting photographic proof of their participation online.
But what they may not know is that these pictures aren’t as secret as they think.
Public profiles in the Ernest W. Seaholm network are public -- very public -- to every person who has a Facebook account at Seaholm. (Yes, the pictures too). One thousand, one hundred and thirty one current and former Seaholm students have a Facebook account on the Ernest W. Seaholm network.
And it’s possible those people may get a surprise call from a college or future employer to inquire about a photo or two on their Facebook account.
Director of Recruiting and Community Affairs at the Detroit News, Walter Middlebrook, told the Highlander that he uses his own account to search candidates for the company.
“I’m not going to say I do it regularly,” said Middlebrook. “It can be a factor of when we’re looking at a candidate. I’m not the only one that’s searching.”
Senior recruiter, Joseph Thomas, at T.J. Adams and Associates can said his recruiting firm also checks Facebook and MySpace pages.
“Not routinely, but we have, I have done so,” said Thomas.
One Seaholm MySpace user who asked to remain nameless was shocked to hear that employers and universities have possible access to her page.
“I’d probably delete my Facebook and my MySpace if an employer was going to see it,” she said.
Senior Alex Leckie said he knew Facebook pages were not truly private, and that anyone posting selfincriminating evidence may want to reevaluate that decision.
“They’re either pretty screwed or they might want to switch a few things around so they don’t get in trouble,” said Leckie.
“I feel like if you are going to post pictures you should have that mind frame that people could look at them,” said senior Megan Bertrand.
“So you have to make that decision when you put the pictures up.”
Perhaps the most famous Facebook backfire is the November, 2007 story of Kevin Colvin, an intern at Anglo Irish Bank’s North American arm in Massachusetts.
Colvin, was caught in a lie to his thirtysomething boss, Paul Davis last October after posting drunken photos of himself in a fairy outfit, complete with a sparkly wand, on Facebook the night after he told his boss he would be missing time due to a family emergency in New York.
Davis pulled up his Facebook page, found the photos, and e-mailed Colvin (and blind copied the entire office) the following:
“Kevin,” Davis wrote. “Thanks for letting us know – hope everything is ok in New York. (cool wand), Cheers PCD.”
Colvin lost his job, as have others for their indiscretions.
TimeLine recruiting Team CEO, Van Allen, looked up a candidate on Facebook and found “pictures of her taking off her shirt at parties” according to an August 2007 article on MSNBC. She didn’t end up getting the job.
“We’re all human and we understand that,” said Thomas. “The young people nowadays with the social networking have to really be cautious if you have any hint of a future.”
“More of the business firms are looking closer [at these pages],” said the Detroit News’ Middlebrook. “We’re more loose [whereas] major, major businesses very adamantly checking these things [and] when they see something you’re out.”
According to a 2007 survey by ExecuNet, a website that focuses on bringing corporate level executives together to discuss commonalities, 83% of recruiters are using search engines to find more information about their candidates.
Seaholm, according to Assistant Principal Deb Boyer, does not have an administer’s account on Facebook or MySpace.
“I wouldn’t touch that with a 10 foot pole,” Boyer said.
Assistant Principal Staci Peterson told the Highlander she hadn’t heard about anything BPS, but in her previous administration job the police liasion had a social networking account.
Although intended for students, Facebook can be accessed by university alumni through their alma mater’s network. And, not surprisingly, many admissions officers went to that university.
Michael Kolar, Director of Admissions at Michigan State University, said the school does not view of any prospective students’ Facebooks or MySpaces.
“I don’t believe so,” one University of Michigan Admissions officer told the Highlander regarding viewing the social network pages. But she also added to “be careful what you put on there.”
So prospective college students may be safe (at least for U of M and State) except for the people who might leave uncensored content.
Reed College (Portland, Oregon) Dean of Admissions Paul Marthers denied a student admission for incriminating comments on a LiveJournal dedicated to the college about Reed in 2006.
“The USA Today article didn’t completely get it right,” Marthers told the Highlander. “Our policy is that if somebody in our community says to us-and this does not happen very often- ‘oh this applicant looks like someone who wouldn’t necessarily uphold the honor principle at Reed.’ And if someone says that, we investigate it.”
The incident that Marthers was faced with was a scam against the financial aid office by a Reed prospect.
“This guy decided to get married just for financial aid reasons,” said Marthers. “[He] was telling other students to do that [through the Reed College LiveJournal site].”
The college immediately changed the eligibility for financial aid.
As far as the first ‘real’ job employers, they have no problem going the extra click to find those high school or college pictures that were posted years ago.
The Highlander contacted one of the girls pictured in this story (we have decided not to identify her). She claimed she had no knowledge of any pictures on her site.
“I don’t put up pictures of alcohol or anything like that,” said the anonymous Facebook user. “I untag myself if there’s alcohol in the picture. I do that either way ‘cause I don’t want my mom to see my page, but I generally don’t put pictures of alcohol up.”
