“Its Facebook Jim, but not as we know it!” I See The End of Facebook. Well Facebook as we know it.

I See The End of Facebook.  Well Facebook as we know it.

Today I read that Facebook was going to allow recruiters to target users based on their job title.  My first reaction.  Remove my career history from Facebook.  Might seem like I’m cutting off potential employers and as a job seeker that’s probably not a good move but is it?

Let’s face it Facebook was fun, you exchanged messages, funny posts & photographs with your family and friends.  You embarrassed friends and relatives by tagging them in photographs that show them drunk and doing other daft stuff.  It’s a bit of fun between friends & family but now those very images, messages & funny posts are more and more likely to be used against us in the world of work and even more worryingly the very first step in the process of gaining work, recruitment.

I first wrote about the use of social media in recruitment a little while ago and my belief that it shouldn’t be checked last year in my blog “Why Checking Applicants Social Media is a bad idea.” http://wp.me/p3LUbc-7b and even in the five months since then I am more and more convinced from what I am hearing from others that the life span of Facebook as it is, is limited.  It will become as sanitised as Linked In and in doing so become something that will lose its appeal.

What evidence do I have for that?

Professionals that I know are deleting their Facebook Accounts because of fear of losing the jobs, especially those professionals who work in Teaching, Nursing, Social Care, etc those who work children & vulnerable adults who according to their employers even outside of work must remain professional at all times.  Nurses who when on a night out must not be shown in photographs as having a glass of wine or a pint of beer in their hands, let alone be seen to be acting under the influence of alcohol.  (It is still legal in this country to buy & consume alcohol).  Teachers who cannot share holiday photographs showing them in swim wear etc because their employers deem it to be inappropriate for pupils to see them dress in such.

There are numerous blogs written and published on the various social media platforms for Job Seekers to look through and sanitise their social media presence because recruiters are now looking at them more and more.  The problem with Facebook and other sites like it is that other people can tag you in photographs that you may or may not have known where taken and only they can untag you from it.  You might even miss the fact that its there for days or weeks depending on how often you visit the site by which time the damage will have been done and your bosses and potential employers will have seen it and made their decision on what to do next.

Now that Facebook has made it easier for recruiters to find and target people by their job title, how long will it be before they are allowed access to these peoples full profiles for a fee and with the user unaware of it?

A lot of the professionals I know are deleting their Facebook profiles, I know that at least five friends last week have done just that because of warnings from their employers as to their online content.  I also advise parents and young adults preparing for the world of work to do exactly the same.  Why?  Simple do you want to risk the chance of a career, your future because of a photograph or comment you made as a child.  Do you want to be judged because of in inappropriate view you held when you were too young to know better to come back and bite you because in between times the law and society has changed its mind on what is appropriate.  Do you want to lose a job because of something you posted years before in a fit of temper or spite, I’m sure you don’t.  Paris Brown probably never thought that her comments on social media when she was 15 or so was going to bring her to the media spot light, her name and face on TV and national newspapers and ultimately lose the job that she had and the prospect of ever being able to get another job or build a career.  Why? Because she will forever be viewed as a racist & homophobe.

So why do I see the end of Facebook as we know it?

Because Facebook was fun, what we put on there didn’t really matter it was between friend & family.  We weren’t worried about employers or future employers viewing it.  They had better thing to do with their time but not anymore.  They want to view their employee’s social media footprint to ensure that their reputation/brand isn’t being damaged.  They want to view potential recruit’s social media for the same reason.  Now people are going to have to be careful what they put out on their social media and not only that what their friends & other members of their family put on there too.  It’s no longer any fun and if it isn’t fun why do it.  Why take the risk to your future for just one inappropriate comment, photograph, like etc that you missed deleting or couldn’t get a friend to untag.

So as Facebook is no longer going to be any fun, it will become just another sanitised social media platform which only shows employers what the employee and future employee wants them to see.

So if it’s no longer any fun why do it?  Linked In will suffice for making connections and furthering your career.

Do you need it anymore?

No, you are probably better to stick to platforms that you strictly control the output of and even then you’ll have to be careful not only to think about whether what you are posting is appropriate now but will it be appropriate in the future.

The future: “Its Facebook Jim, but not as we know it!”