If you're like me, you like to occasionally stay home on a Friday or Saturday night to unwind. This means kicking back on the sofa, competing against 8-year-olds on Xbox Live and politely declining when friends invite you to party.
Eventually you'll grow tired of getting your butt kicked by random preteens on "Modern Warfare 2" and settle down in front of a computer. To ease boredom, you might check your social networking site of choice. In all likelihood, it's going to be Facebook.
Keep in mind that you may have declined an invitation to go partying with some friends that Friday or Saturday night. There's also the likelihood that the partiers had access to a Blackberry, iPhone or other means of Internet access.
This is the most entertaining part of the night. For me, at least.
For the most part, drunken Facebook posts are mildly entertaining. Seeing the results of labored texting and impaired thinking can bring about a cheap laugh and opportunity for a gentle ribbing of the responsible party the next day. It's even more of a laugh when that person's Grandma Mamayev, Aunt Cathy or Pastor Ericson have Facebooks as well.
A lot can be learned about the person that one probably didn't know before. As the old saying goes, "A drunk man's words are a sober man's thoughts." Or woman's, to be all-inclusive.
The Daily Mail showcased a Facebook group titled "30 Reasons Girls Should Call It A Night." It exists to act as a forum for discussion of girls' nights out. Essentially, it's a repository of drunken photographs and stories that nobody in her right mind should be boasting about.
As entertaining as this stuff may be for some people, it's annoying, reckless and unattractive to others. This is especially the case when a potential future boss happens to be Internet-savvy enough to peruse a potential employee's Facebook profile.
A survey conducted by Careerbuilder.com and reported on NPR found one in five company managers looked up profiles of job applicants on social networking sites such as Facebook. One in three of those applicants were rejected.
The data indicated photographs involving drinking and drug use were the biggest turnoffs for employers. Comments made toward the applicant's former co-workers were evaluated as well.
I'm sure most people are aware of the dangers of posting compromising content on Facebook. Unintended parties can and will see it. Though Facebook gives its users the option to make pages accessible to friends only, it doesn't guarantee privacy.
Facebook also has the unnerving ability to keep personal information after one's page has been "deactivated." Deactivated, not deleted. There is technically no option to "delete" a Facebook page other than going through and deleting individual posts, which is time-consuming.
It's safe to say that once a drunken update is posted to a profile, someone is going to see it. Chances are more than one person will see it. In fact, whoever posted it better hope it's nothing compromising, because it's likely going to be hours before that person sobers up and realizes what they have done.
One can liken it to a news story that hits the Web with a minor typo. Let's say the writer forgot to add a space between the words "pen" and "is." What were originally an ink-based writing implement and a linking verb are now combined to form something far more scandalous. The organization may catch it almost immediately and correct it five minutes after it hits the Web.
Rest assured, however, that the original version of that news story has already been distributed. It's guaranteed that it has been cached somewhere in that form as well.
Facebook is similar. Someone posting drunken musings about how they just hooked up with their girlfriend's sister should be prepared for that information to be available to everyone. Sure, that person might delete it after a few hours, but it's still cached in the minds (or e-mail notifications) of whoever saw it.
What I'm attempting to say is this: Respect yourself and others before Facebooking while intoxicated. It's not only laughable but also damaging to one's reputation.
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