How Old Social Media Accounts Can Hurt Your Employment Chances
Social media dominates the world these days. Very few people don’t use it. Even if you don’t like Twitter or Snapchat, you may use Meta to maintain old classmate connections. Maybe you use LinkedIn for professional purposes.
You might use social media without thinking about it much. Maybe you say things you believe, but you don’t realize how they might sound out of context. You may also not consider how they’ll sound in your professional life.
Social media posts can hurt your employment opportunities, and that’s worth discussing in more detail.
What Your Social Media Posts Reveal
Social media has existed for many years now. Maybe you had a Myspace account back in 2006, and you never deleted that account. Perhaps you had other social media profiles over the years, and you abandoned some without deleting them.
You might not feel the same way now as you did 15 or 20 years back. Perhaps you’ve grown and matured as a person. You may not find the same jokes or memes funny anymore. Some people never grow up, but many changes as they gain more life experience.
If you’re job hunting, and a prospective employer sees a social media post you made many years before, how might that depict you? Will you sound insensitive? Perhaps you will even sound intolerant.
Even if you don’t feel the same way now, you still said something controversial, or maybe you simply hit the “like” button if an immature friend sent you a tasteless meme. If that post appears when your would-be employer digs into your background, you must have an explanation. That’s one-way social media can harm your professional life.
How You Can Delete Old Social Media Accounts
Before you start your job hunt, you may decide to look up, and deleting old social media accounts makes sense. You can start with blogs. Maybe you have a blog on your website. Some people do this for profit. You can make money through sponsorship by creating a blog that enough people read.
You can back up your content if you would like those blogs for your records, but you don’t want your potential employer reading them. That way, they won’t ask about any controversial topics you posted there.
If you have a Facebook account you no longer want, you can download any data under the Settings option you don’t want permanently deleted. Just select “Your Facebook Information” off of the menu and keep any old photos, videos, or posts. Then, when you’re ready, you can use the “Delete Your Account and Information” feature.
What About Other Old Social Media Accounts?
You might have a Flickr account. Flickr lets you show pictures, but maybe you have some you’d prefer a possible employer not to see. You can save any images from Flickr on a hard drive before you delete the account. Then, you just visit the Account Settings page.
There, you’ll find the “Request My Flickr Data” option. Use that and delete the account with the Settings menu.
If you use Twitter, maybe you’ve had a few hot takes over the years you don’t want your would-be employer to see. For total account deactivation, you can request an account archive. Then, you can deactivate the account, so no one sees your old posts any longer.
You might also delete a Tumblr account, a YouTube one, or perhaps you’re on something like Truth Social or Telegram. Deleting any of those might seem the best move if you ever said anything off-color or controversial.
Use This as a Learning Experience
If you feel sure you’ve cleaned up your old social media accounts and deleted the ones you no longer want, you can attend job interviews and feel totally confident. Now, the hiring manager or business owner can judge you by the answers you give, your resume, your education, and your personal and professional recommendations.
You might also consider what you post online more carefully now. If you say something online you would not say in real life, that might haunt you if it gets out somehow. Even when you have private profiles, your words can leak out in unexpected ways sometimes.
Keeping your opinions private helps you in the business world. You might say something in intimate settings that you wouldn’t say in your professional life. You can regard your social media posts the same way. Even if someone provokes you online, a measured response works best.
Read Also:
