Facebook Can Ruin Your Life

Last week was the US Presidential Election.  I tried to avoid Facebook Tuesday night, but in my line of work it was unavoidable.  I saw some posts that were happy about who won, but the majority were complaining about their candidate not winning and how the US is doomed.  Did I voice my opinion?  No.  Did I want to?  Heck yeah!  I didn’t simply because I didn’t want anything to come back and haunt me or hurt by business.

Unfortunately, not everyone thinks that way.

Wednesday evening, while doing my nightly run-through of Facebook, I came across a picture that was shared from a friend in Michigan.  The picture originated from MY TOWN!  It was a screenshot of someone from my town who had posted a not-very-friendly rant of the election that night before using words I will not use.  ever.

When confronted online, this person proceeded to tell off this person in a vulgar, profanity-laced, derogatory rant.  Take a look below (this was a screenshot I took from my newsfeed and sent to a mutual friend of the doctor mentioned):

This post was shared over 1500 times before the night was out.  I have friends at this doctor’s office and it was a PR nightmare.  It eventually made the local news stations and newspapers.  Her profile was disabled and yes, she lost her job.  Over one mindless, inappropriate post on Facebook.

Her life is in ruins right now.  I do not know her or had even heard of her before this, but a friend of mine has a daughter in her daughter’s class.  The kids were not in school the day after this.  I cannot even imagine what she’s going through right now.

The lesson to be learned here is BE AWARE of what you are posting.  Just because this person’s account is no longer active, this post by the person who shared it is still there.  Forever.

Yes, this is America and we have the freedom of speech, but we are to use that freedom carefully.  You can say what you want but when you type something online, it’s there for the world to see.  There is nothing wrong with expressing your opinion, but if you do, you better be ready for the fallout.

A lot of people post when they are emotional – when they’re mad, frustrated, having a bad day, etc. – but PLEASE think twice before clicking “post”.  The longer I work in social media, the more aware of what I post, both professionally and personally.  There are times I want to go on a rant because of something that’s made me mad, but I don’t post it.  I literally will have tons of sarcastic posts running through my head that I would never dare post.

All I am asking of you is to think twice.  Friends don’t let friends post carelessly.

Facebook ruined this woman’s life.  Don’t let it ruin yours.  You do not want to be the subject of something like this: