By Ethan Harmon
Weekends are the universal way of unwinding after a long week of work. Paychecks are cashed, plans are made, bars are filled and drinks are poured. And, of course, most nights spiral out of control, with too many screwdrivers consumed topped off with a half-dozen beers.
The morning after always is a blur, and follows the ritual of checking texts, phone calls and surfing Facebook and Twitter to see what stupid decisions were made the night before. But, hey, it’s harmless, right?
Actually, no, it’s not. Though it may seem like a fond remembrance of a fun night partying with friends, the cataloging of pictures, videos and activities of a drunken rampage actually is detrimental to multiple facets of your social and professional life.
Though it seems obvious at this point, many seem to forget that most employers periodically check the various social media profiles of their employees. That means that your boss will see the pictures of you vomiting on the bartender on your Facebook wall, and your co-workers will see the video of you streaking on your Twitter feed. Clearly, that will not reflect well around the office. Employers even go as far as to fire employees who do not represent some sort of normal, professional persona on their social media profiles. And if you lose your job, how do you expect to find a new one? The next potential boss won’t check, right? Wrong again. Good luck with that job hunt.
Of course, the images plastered all over your Instagram feed don’t present the best side of your vibrant, intelligent personality, particularly when you are partying and acting like an ass in the photos. Expect judgments all around. Have fun trying to explain the “fun and games” to those who are un-friending you and un-following you. Do you think deleting the images will help? Not likely. Instagram – which is owned by Facebook – caches all information processed through the site and app, just as Facebook is prone to do. Sure, the picture is not on your feed, but it is still stored on the site.
Don’t deny yourself fun, but party responsibly. You never know where your face might end up and what it might mean for you later.
