Social Media Guilty of Murder

That’s an exaggeration. However, a recent incident involving a Rutgers University student demonstrates where social media and the Internet are taking us. College pranks at the beginning of the school year are common, particularly when freshmen are involved. These pranks have sometimes gone overboard, but with the Internet, a prank or an act of revenge can ravage  the  target.

At Rutgers, two students secretly taped another, a freshman, having sex in his dorm room. The two pranksters, cyber bullies, or worse then put the video on the Internet. The freshman killed himself. What the two students did was a clear invasion of privacy. Under New Jersey law, it also appears to be a crime.

Is there any way to prevent this from happening? Not really. One can find anything on the Internet and can put anything on the Internet. One of the culprit students even put something on Twitter about the prank, directing 150 followers to iChat, an Internet messaging service with a live video fee. I can also see this being put on a Facebook wall, YouTube, and God knows what else.

If  you think this has nothing to do with the workplace, think again. All workplaces have people who can’t differentiate between fun and cruelty. If a frightful employee seeks revenge after being terminated, what can be more vengeful than humiliating the boss on the Internet? It’s really a form of workplace violence.

Maybe, privacy as we used to know it is gone. Maybe what happened at Rutgers is just the way things are now. At the very least, employers should have written policies that address various aspects of social media and Internet use. The policy can’t control everything an employee does on his computer at home, but it can prevent using social media or the Internet, on any computer, in a way that’s detrimental to the employer and co-workers.

1. 

   Winifred Smith says:

   September 30, 2010 at 3:33 pm

   I appreciated your commentary on “social media” and think it is spot on. The YouToothpaste is out of the YouTube and I’m afraid there is no going back. Politicians and sociologists are already making noise about our presumed right to privacy and how it is not an explicit right in the constitution. The Supreme Court could just as easily “un-define” privacy as a basic human right and may already be seen as doing so. When a corporation now has the same rights as an individual in the United States, I think we have crossed that threshold already. And what workplace does not have a camera in it, or what shop or office is camera free? What street is not full of iPhone chattering people who can snap you and upload your image to a satellite faster than the street corner traffic camera can?

   Apparently we have also come to a point where policy upon corporate policy is needed to control the corporate behavior of a new generation of employees who do not have expectations of privacy, and for whom propriety means updating their Twitter account to include mom, dad and as many strangers as possible.

   Big Brother now has a million little brothers and sisters.
2. 

   John Phillips says:

   September 30, 2010 at 7:09 pm

   Winifred,

   This is a great comment. Thank you for posting it.

   I usually say the horse is too far out of the barn to do anything about it. Your YouToothpast is out of the YouTube is much better on this subject.

   The right of privacy is being eroded so quickly that there won’t be any left in any venue. We have met the enemy, and it is us — or maybe the younger generations. But we produced those generations

   Thanks again for taking the time to comment.

   John
3. 

   ACU Frank says:

   October 1, 2010 at 2:50 pm

   The toothpaste line was excellent. I am sure to steal – err… borrow – it at some point.
4. 

   John Phillips says:

   October 1, 2010 at 3:54 pm

   Frank,

   I don’t think that’s the kind of stealing Winifred had in mind. It’s such a good line, however, that it would probably be worth taking a chance on a real theft.

   John