Social Media Scrutiny

Advancements in technology led to the development of social media platforms and networks such as Twitter, Instagram, emails, LinkedIn, and Facebook. People create accounts on these sites and personalize them to their preferences. The personalization of accounts makes people susceptible to elimination when looking for work. This is because recruiters check the social pages of potential employees and use that information in deciding who to hire. In some instances, employees are fired from their employment because of their social media activities. Therefore, in the quest for administration to have the best-suited employees, they judge job seekers and other employees unfairly based on social media profiles and activities. Therefore, social media screening should not be supported because it promotes discrimination and invasion of privacy for the employees and influences the company’s reputation.

The first disadvantage of social media scrutiny is the invasion of privacy. As recruiters and employers view their potential employees’ and employees’ social media pages, the individual being scrutinized feels that the action is an invasion of privacy (Drouin et al., 2015). Furthermore, social media accounts represent peoples’ personal lives away from work, and therefore, checking their profiles is indeed an invasion of their personal and private lives. The invasion of privacy has led to a couple of people being fired because their employers did not like what they found on the pages. Additionally, some online accounts are private, and some people cannot view these accounts; the use of unacceptable alternative means to access these accounts is an illegal action and a high degree of invasion of privacy. Therefore, social media scrutiny is an invasion of privacy.

The second disadvantage of social media scrutiny is discrimination. Discrimination is influenced by the fact that people post their personal life. A biased recruiter who discriminates against people of color, disabled, or the LGBTQ community might disqualify these job seekers because of these characteristics. Subsequently, discrimination against some of the characteristics listed above is illegal in most states, and therefore, this discrimination is illegal. Additionally, since people are not aware of this bias, actions cannot be taken against this bias. Therefore, this bias doesn’t favor job seekers. Additionally, it’s not just job seekers who miss out but also employees who are fired based on discoveries of their characteristics (Lauderdale et al., 2021). Subsequently, discrimination based on these factors causes people to miss out on opportunities that they would fit excellently.

Another disadvantage of social media scrutiny is the destruction of the company’s reputation. The destruction of the company’s reputation is caused by the reaction of employees who have been fired because of social media profiles. Additionally, potential employees might prefer employment in a company that doesn’t scrutinize their online profiles as compared to those who scrutinize their social media profiles. Additionally, social media profiles may be fabricated and, therefore, do not represent an individual’s actual personality; they might be close to the truth or far from the truth (The Use Of Social Media in Hiring – Risks and Tips – Ogletree Deakins, 2010). Therefore, the destruction of the company’s reputation will be based on the reactions of the employees and potential employees.

In conclusion, social media scrutiny in the time of employee recruitment is a practice that should be stopped. Scrutiny in professional accounts, such as LinkedIn, may be allowed, but scrutiny on other social media accounts for recreation should not be carried out. Subsequently, this conclusion is based on all the negative impacts that job seekers and employers may face in regard to the results of this scrutiny. Therefore, social media scrutiny should not be advocated for, but its use in hiring employees should be stopped.

References

Drouin, M., O’Connor, K., Schmidt, G. and Miller, D., 2015. Facebook fired: Legal perspectives and young adults’ opinions on the use of social media in hiring and firing decisions. Computers in Human Behavior, 46, pp.123-128.

Lauderdale, F., Cobanoglu, P. and Ongan, P., 2021. INTERNATIONAL INTERDISCIPLINARY BUSINESS-ECONOMICS ADVANCEMENT CONFERENCE. [online] Scholarcommons.usf.edu. Available at: <https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=anaheipublishing#page=209> [Accessed 17 April 2021].

Ogletree Deakins. 2010. The Use Of Social Media in Hiring – Risks and Tips – Ogletree Deakins. [online] Available at: <https://ogletree.com/insights/the-use-of-social-media-in-hiring-risks-and-tips/> [Accessed 17 April 2021].

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Social Media Screening

Please write a two page paper on your views about employers using social media accounts to make a decision about hiring someone. Is this an evasion of privacy? Please support your opinion with in-text citations.

Social Media Scrutiny