Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: Living Without Social Media In 2015?
An anonymous reader writes On Slashdot, we frequently write derogatory comments regarding social networking sites. We bash Facebook and the privacy implications associated with having a great deal of your life put out there for corporations to monetize. Others advocate for deleting your Facebook profile. Six months ago, I did exactly that. However, as time went on, I have fully realized social media's tacit importance to function in today's world, especially if you are busy advancing your career and making the proper connections to do so. Employers expect a LinkedIn profile that they can check and people you are meeting expect a Facebook account. I have heard that not having an account on the almighty Facebook could label you as a suspicious person. I have had employers express hesitation in hiring me (they used the term "uncomfortable") and graduate school interviewers have asked prying questions regarding some things that would normally be on a person's social media page. Others have literally recoiled in horror at the idea of someone not being on Facebook. I have found it quite difficult to even maintain a proper social life without a social media account to keep up to date with any sort of social activities (even though most of them are admittedly quite mundane). Is living without social media possible in 2015? Does social media have so much momentum that the only course of action is simply to sign up for such services to maintain normality despite the vast privacy issues associated with such sites? Have we forgotten how to function without Facebook?
I don't use Facebook. I am on LinkedIn but I never update anything. And I don't care. If an employer wants my years of experience they will take me as I am. If they are going to reject me because I don't waste time on Facebook, then I probably wouldn't last long there. Their loss.
Nonconformism is always viewed with suspicion by the masses. Either you have the courage of your convictions or you don't. Any company that's going to judge me based on the lack of a Facebook account isn't someplace I'd want to work.
The reason employers want everyone to be on social media: They can use it to gather information about you that would be illegal or inappropriate to ask in a job interview.
Whenever someone asks why you don't have a social media account, all you need to tell them is:
I'm not a narcissist.
You don't believe your life is anyone else's business, no need to show them pictures of your latest adventure, no need for gratification from the unwashed masses. You are who you are.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Seconded. it's illegal to ask about family and religion at a job interview in the US because it permits discrimination based on whether you think someone will ask for extra days off. Employers skirt this and other equal opportunity laws by asking for your Facebook info instead. If they're playing that kind of game I don't want to work for them.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
Same here... I ended up filling in a bit of detail on it too, so it's now my online CV. However, I don't use it like a social network, just as a place for people to find my employment info.
Facebook? Never had an account, never plan to, and never missed it. My social life is already busy enough without it thank you.
I'd like to know why people consider Facebook to be the epitome of social media when Slashdot's been in the business for way longer.
Really... take a look at someone's profile on here sometime. You can learn a lot about a Slashdotter with an account. No need for Facebook.
Not to mention the fact that Slashdot accounts get ranked at the top of search results....
Not really. Facebook has embedded themselves deeply with so many third-party websites that they can infer a lot on you simply as you use your browser after having used Facebook in the past.
The only winning move is not to play.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
That's interesting. I'll remember that the next time I have a huge swath of common interests to talk about with people I've just met at a weekend convention - common interests we discovered not through weeks or months of guessing, but with a quick glance at a public profile. I'll remember that the next time I see my cousins and we talk about all the shared experiences with have with out kids - spurred by our keeping in-touch through FB and seeing our kids grow up. I'm sure I felt that reconnecting with an old college buddy online was totally non-social. It was so non-social that he used FB to let me know he was going to be in my town for a night on business, and we get together at a pub and killed a couple of pitchers of Guiness over the course of a long evening. I met a woman from England at an event about 4 years ago. We see one another - at most - once a year. But when she comes to the states it's like we've been best buddies the whole time and we always have a fantastic time together with friends.
Social media, in general, is about keeping in touch with people and interacting. It doesn't take the place of face to face meetings - it bridges the gaps between those meetings. If you're not closer to your friends with social media than without, you're doing it wrong.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Well, as a 5-digit ID owner, I can confirm that the only thing that not being on Facebook has brought me is more free time. I do have a Xing profile and that one is the only thing professional contacts ask to be linked to. For all others, email and/or phone number is quite enough. Of course, I am doing the "technical career" thing, where I actually improve my skills and capabilities and it is important what I can do, not who I know. If you do the bullshit/old-boys-club career, then things like Facebook may be critical.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
I really can't take this seriously. It seems like someone who works for Facebook wrote this.
Millions of people have perfectly normal social lives without facebook or with really minimal facebook use. I know a lot of people who log-in once a week. I know a lot of people who go long periods of time without ever using facebook.
I think the fact that the author thinks its almost impossible to live a normal life without it says more about him/her than it does about facebook.
When I read the headline, I sincerely thought this was an April Fool's joke, but then realized it's the day after. How sad. I'll knock out some of the more egregious lines from your submission.
"Employers expect a LinkedIn profile"
I've interviewed on site (and was hired on with some) with Google, Amazon, Blizzard Entertainment, SpaceX, StackExchange, Lockheed Martin, Siemens, Disney, and more. Not a single one of these groups has ever referenced my LinkedIn profile at any point during the interviewing process. Where are you getting the idea that it's expected?
"people you are meeting expect a Facebook account"
Who? I meet my wife, friends, family, and their extended colleagues regularly without ever referencing Facebook. You need to elaborate.
"I have heard that not having an account on the almighty Facebook could label you as a suspicious person"
You know what they say about rumors and opinions.
"I have had employers express hesitation in hiring me (they used the term "uncomfortable") and graduate school interviewers have asked prying questions regarding some things that would normally be on a person's social media page."
Anything on a person's personal social media page is off limits during a professional interview. LinkedIn? Sure. Facebook? Why would they even ask? What kind of "prying" questions are they asking? What's your favorite movie? Are you married? Fortunately, you can easily turn these idiots down by rejecting their questions.
"Is living without social media possible in 2015?"
Yes. Next stupid question?
What can I say?
I *am* antisocial. If I'm outside walking/cycling/skiing/whatever, I don't want to be telephoned. Interactions are face to face or not at all.
I may have a google+ account (it came with the gmail address, which was a necessity when I bought an Android phone) but that does not mean I have ever used it, or the gmail account. No Facebook, no Linkedin, no Whatsapp, no whatever-the-other-one-was-which-Rupert-Murdoch-bought. I don't see a problem.
Mielipiteet omiani - Opinions personal, facts suspect.
Agree completely. Don't deal with any of those and have a good social life. I think a lot of people are mistaking drive-by one-second chats or texts with "social life". It's not, really.
Agreed - I have no facebook account, no twitter account and I don't do the iggy either... (Simpsons ref) (Don't have a 5 digit UID But I'm old enough that I have to start qualifying my pop culture references coz you young whipper snappers probably weren't even born when the reference was made!) I've got old friends that decry that they can't keep me informed with their lives because I don't have a facebook account. (Hullo, I HAVE a smart phone and you can call or text me... Is that too much of an effort for our relationship?)
I've got a LinkedIn account that's strictly professional and that's as far as it goes I don't even really communicate on it other than to answer the recruiters or to hook up with some ex-coworkers (which I then take off line). I am amazed at how many people keep sending me personal or political information (all flavors) on it as if employers wouldn't care about that when hiring - The adage is still true - Don't discuss politics, religion or the Great Pumpkin in polite company.
Dab nag whippersnappers! Get off my lawn!
The alternative to limited government is unlimited government.
Too many people wanted to vouch for my skills.
This is what makes LinkedIn 'references' bullshit. People have recommended me for skills they can't possibly know I even have. It devalues the whole system.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine