The vast majority of you GCers are American and are probably already on your way to a long weekend of barbeques and fireworks, while yous Canadians are coming off a long weekend of your own. All of you are nursing summer hangovers and the general summer “don’t give a flying ***k” attitude. Know who else doesn’t give a double eff? Alec Baldwin.
If you’re an intern, you probably read about Alec Baldwin’s most recent Twitter meltdown while you killed time “at work” browsing TMZ.com. Need a recap? Here’s a tweet aimed at a Daily Mail reporter George Stark that wrote an article (since taken down) about the potentially ill-timed tweets of Alec’s wife during the funeral services for James Gandolfini:
"I'm gonna find you, George Stark, you toxic little queen, and I'm gonna [expletive]…you…up."
Alec has since deleted his Twitter account, vowing never to return (yawn). I don’t want to start a debate about Mr. Baldwin’s career or the relevance of celeb-Twitter-freakouts in today’s society. I just want to point out the simple life lesson here.
Lock your shit up.
Really, it’s that simple people. If you are vying for an internship, hoping to receive a job offer this fall on campus, or you are a working professional who might be on the job market soon, it’s important to think about your sober and not-so-sober tweeting, Instagram, and Facebook habits.
Why? Because we live in a world where everything that’s not locked down can be dug up. How many of you 20-somethings have landed a date off of OkCupid or J-Date and Google Stalked the poor person before the first awkward hug at the bar even happened? Find their Instagram account and you’re judging his/her taste in blurry eggs benedict brunch locales and wondering what happened to the blonde from six months ago. Find his Twitter account and you’re down the rabbit hole of his obsession with live-tweeting the Game of Thrones. But you and your friends justify this pre-date, pre-screen habit because the information is public. Well guess what — HR does the same thing.
I know, I know. “Social media is part of our lives now.” “I love it when my photos get 27 likes from IGers around the world!!!” Yeah, cool. I’m sure it feels all warm and fuzzy to have your toes in the sand be “liked” by some foot fetish robo-Instagram account in China. Those likes and retweets are part of everyday life! But you know what else is VERY real? Potential employers judging the shit out of you. So, before you go Instagramming your beer-chuggin’ bro’s or your red white and blue bikini clad gurls, please for the love of your future, lock your accounts. Keep some control over who sees the details of your annual ‘Merica, F*ck Yeah beer fest.
But by all means, drink domestic this weekend. Cheers.
