Sunday, February 17, 2008

An example of the social web gone bad

An AP seed over at Newsvine offers some chilling reality when it comes to personal information an the web. The article got me thinking about how easy it can be to discredit someone by rumor. Now that some employers google/search social networking sites for prospective new hires, what prevents someone from gathering a couple flikr pictures and creating a fallacious profile?

4 comments:

Harry Chen said...

This is definitely a case where people abuse the use of free speech on the Internet. My thinking is that unless the society is willing to sacrifice free speech, it will be difficult to ban sites like JuicyCampus.

However, the society as a whole has the power to pressure similar sites to take actions to prevent the dissemination of fallacious profiles -- we use free speech to fight back. If the public media can pay enough attention to the problem, criticisms will force sites like JuicyCampus to behave with a sense of moral obligation.

Jason said...

I think we are starting to see that. A follow up article:

From Chronical.com
...
Critics of the site from Loyola Marymount University started a Facebook group called “BAN JuicyCampus!!!” which has attracted 854 members. An article this week in the Yale Daily News describes reaction to the site on that campus.
...

Andrew said...

I tend to start my analysis at the root of the problem - Companies are making hiring decisions based on an unsubstantiated media source. To me, thats the beginning and ending of the issue. If I wanted to research global warming, I wouldn't make my judgement after watching Sean Hannity espouse his view on Fox News. Its not a reputable source on the matter. So why are we trusting a medium which has no validation technique as a means of making important decisions?

Sarah Stanger said...

Andrew, I agree that companies shouldn't base their judgment on a site like that. But consciously or unconsciously it will impact their opinion of the job applicant. First impressions definitely matter.