A tale of Social Networking sites (yet again)

In my last post the last thing I advised was to be careful what you post up on social networking sites, as it may come back to haunt you, well I had barely uploaded that post when yet another social networking news story broke in the UK.

The British people love their Tennis and particularly Wimbledon, but for decades now we have been really unrepresented in this sport, with only one or two players in the top one hundred, which for a country of over 60 Million and a decent sized middle class, is pretty poor form. To remedy this, the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), has been ploughing money into supporting young tennis players, which makes good sense really.

Well two of these funded young players were found publicising a lifestyle of partying, drinking and eating junk food on the Bebo social networking site. Pictures included one in a street holding an empty bottle with a the caption “Me Drunk for a change”, and statements saying hates-“hangovers after a good nite owt[sic]” and “wiv the boyz parting and chillin[sic]”

The players had left their social networking sites unlocked for the whole world to view. The LTA and public have taken poor view after seeing what they posted up, which resulted in the LTA taking action and withdrawn their funding for these players and warning several other players.

Putting aside the morals and the rights and wrongs, these young tennis players have seriously jeopardised their careers by their postings online, if they had been more careful in the way they used their social networking space, they probably would of got away with it, after all we were all young once, instead their statements and images are now all over the British media and they have lost their tennis funding.

These young tennis players aren’t the first to have their careers damaged as a result of postings on a social networking site, employers in the UK have sacked several people over postings online. Today I am seeing more and more employers checking social network sites as a background check, before they even decide on employing someone, so just be careful what you post online.