Social Media – Blessing and Curse

Thanks to Social Media our world is connected like never before. It helps friends and family stay in touch more easily, holds businesses and governments more accountable than ever, produces an endless stream of cat memes to make us laugh, and has even helped overthrow tyrants.

For all the good it does, though, Social Media causes significant problems for those who misuse it. Some people waste countless hours every day with what amounts to a self-licking ice cream cone. While Social Media makes it easy to connect and share good things, it’s just as effortless to use it for bullying, spreading hatred, or hanging out your dirty laundry for the whole world to see.

On one level, our job as Career Consultants here at BogiDope is pretty straightforward. Once you’ve done a couple of hundred application reviews, you get very good at quickly identifying the good and bad in the next app you see. Once you’ve conducted a couple of hundred practice interviews, you have a pretty good idea of what to expect based on a person’s background - and how to help him or her improve.

However, Social Media can be a nightmare for both you and us! If you didn’t figure out the dangers of Social Media in your past, there’s a good chance you’ve posted things that will at least make for some painful interviews. At worst, it could prevent you from getting hired...anywhere.

It doesn’t matter how great your application and interview go. If you’ve already shown the world that you’re a raging narcissist, a bully, a racist, a drunk, or have any number of other undesirable traits, it’s a lot tougher for us to help you. In many cases, a person’s online presence has been so far gone that the best we could do was recommend deleting everything and starting over.

We don’t want it to come to that! We want you to be able to enjoy the good of Social Media and avoid any of the sins that could cost you your dream job. Better yet, we’d like your Social Media presence to improve your chances of getting that job. Over the next two weeks, we’re going to take a hard look at the good and bad of Social Media, and how to set up an account that will have recruiters dying to interview you.

Table of Contents

1. It’s a Big Deal
2. Mixed Blessings
3. No Privacy, No Take Backs
4. Free Speech, Not Free From Consequences
5. Go/No-Go Items
6. What is it Good For?
7. Types of Social Media Users
8. Types of Social Media Networks

It’s a Big Deal

Like it or not, Social Media is big business in our world. Facebook is vying with the likes of Berkshire Hathaway and Visa for the honor of becoming the next Trillion-Dollar Company. Much of this value comes from advertising revenue that other companies are all too happy to pay.

A couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to tour the Operations Control Center (OCC) for Delta Air Lines. The OCC is an entire floor covered in extremely fancy workstations where dispatchers, maintainers, an in-house weather shop, and more work to safely and efficiently manage thousands of flights every day for a company that had about 80,000 people at the time.

At the center of this massive room stands a raised platform with just a few workstations on it. Called “The Bridge,” this section of the OCC really does hearken back to the command deck on a Naval vessel...or perhaps the starship Enterprise.

Just as a ship’s bridge has stations for major functional areas like navigation, communication, and weapons, Delta’s bridge has one station for each major functional area in the company: pilots, flight attendants, and maintenance. I shouldn’t have been surprised to hear that right next to these obviously critical areas on The Bridge was another station reserved for a company Social Media specialist.

Think about that for a moment. Delta’s only mission is to fly airplanes. The company had 80,000 people dedicated to that mission. And yet, Social Media is so critical to business in our world these days that they reserved a spot on The Bridge’s very limited real estate for it.

The military is becoming increasingly aware of and concerned with social media use. Marines are now allowed to like some political posts, but not share them. RAF Mildenhall’s Wing Commander had to apologize for liking political tweets with its official Twitter account.

The military does thorough background and security clearance checks for all members. Social Media is getting more scrutiny under those programs all the time. Whoever thought that a little blue bird would be able to cost you a security clearance?

When it comes to getting hired by a Guard or Reserve unit, Social Media gives people a unique insight into who you are. They may get a solid day or two with you when you rush their unit, but your Social Media presence can show a picture of who you’ve been for years. You’d better believe they’re going to take a look!

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Mixed Blessings

Knowing that a potential Guard or Reserve unit is going to look at your Social Media presence, the next question you should ask is: What are they going to find?

A great deal of good in our world happens thanks to Social Media, right? Your future unit may see that you’ve stayed connected with friends and family for a long time. They may see you giving encouragement, good advice, or photos of you helping people out or just being a fun person to hang out with.

Perhaps they’ll see that you’ve written or produced videos to help an even wider audience with something. Social platforms like YouTube offer a lifetime of education for all kinds of DIY tasks. Maybe they’ll just notice that you have a good sense of humor.

You may have also shared insights into your progress toward becoming a pilot and officer in the US military. Social Media can show a sort of proof that you’ve been involved in aviation and/or leadership in your past and that you’re likely to have aptitude in these things if your unit sends you to UPT.

All of these things are good! They’re examples of how social media could help you get hired by the unit of your dreams. However, for every good example, there’s an equal and opposite opportunity to cause yourself trouble.

If your potential unit chooses to look hard, they’ll be able to see any and every questionable thing you’ve ever posted on Social Media. Sadly, we’re not always on our best behavior on these platforms. If you have anything really bad in your past, or your profiles show a repeated tendency toward unfavorable things, it will all be exposed. Like it or not, this could absolutely prevent them from hiring you. This brings us to our next point.

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No Privacy, No Take Backs

Repeat after me: there is no privacy on Social Media, ever.

If you’re smart, you’ve locked down any personal profiles so that only your friends or approved followers can see what you post. However, even if you’ve done everything correctly, it’s trivial for any of them to take a screenshot of anything you post and share it with the world. Never ever post something that you wouldn’t want a potential employer to see the moment before you arrive for a job interview.

I have a couple of female friends who happen to be fantastic pilots. The first time I flew with one friend, we’ll call her Joan, the entire flight was so perfect that I could have sworn our airplane was riding on rails. We’re all Facebook friends, and I once happened to notice that they’d posted some pictures of a girls’ trip to a Caribbean island. It looked like a lot of fun...as evidenced by pictures of them dancing on top of tables in bikinis. I’ll admit, I think they made that swimwear look fantastic. However, seeing those pictures simultaneously made me cringe. What if one of them wanted to fly for the 89th Airlift Wing or the Thunderbirds? What if one of them wanted to fly for an airline, or for a big charter company?

You may think that you’ll be able to delete your wild photos and political rants someday in the future when you need your online presence to start looking more professional. Don’t count on it. Several organizations, from Google itself to the Internet Archive, have been saving copies of the entire internet for years. It’s cheap or free for anyone to look back and dig for dirt. As employers get increasingly serious about each applicant’s Social Media presence, it will become increasingly common for them to start using these services just like they do criminal background checks.

Just don’t post something that could get you in trouble later.

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Free Speech, Not Free From Consequences

The US Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of the press. That means you’re allowed to post anything you want on Social Media. Unfortunately, our culture has forgotten the fact that the Constitution does not guarantee us freedom from the consequences of our actions.

There is no law, anywhere, that protects you from losing a job opportunity because of what you post. I don’t care that you’re “just speaking your truth” or if you lead off with “I’m just saying” or that all you did was post a questionable meme that someone more clever than you thought up. If you get in trouble for what you said, it’s 100% your fault and you have no recourse.

It’s also worth noting that your Constitutional rights protect you from governmental action, but have influence on private companies. Social Media platforms are not protected soapboxes. They’re private property and you agree to abide by whatever rules they want to make up when you create your account. Even just complaining about a private Social Media company censoring you makes you look like an uneducated fool. Don’t do that to yourself.

Don’t ever post on Social Media thinking that there’s some magical protection that will keep you out of trouble for saying something controversial.

“But what kinds of things should I avoid,” you ask? Excellent question! Let’s see:

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Go/No-Go Items

When a pilot is deciding whether to take the risk of going flying, he or she must always identify some situations that make things too risky to go. We call these Go/No-Go items, so we’ll cover the ones that apply to posting something on Social Media.

On one hand, I’m frustrated that I even need to write this list. Put yourself in the shoes of a hiring manager at your dream unit or company. Put your self in the shoes of your future Aircraft Commander, copilot, or crew. What kinds of things do you think they wouldn’t want to see or hear about from you? That should let your No-Go list write itself. However, since we see problems with this all the time, here’s the start of that list for those who’ve never written one of their own:

Racism

Don’t do it. It’s stupid and it’s been out of fashion since at least the 60s. For military pilots especially, you will serve with people from every race you can imagine. There are incredible heroes and dirtbags from any group you want to designate. I promise that race has nothing to do with it.

Sexism

On one hand, this is the same as racism. There is no difference in capability between men and women, especially among pilots. I’m confident that my friend Joan is a better pilot than you, and I’m confident that there are better pilots than her. Gender has nothing to do with it.

On a related note, be careful about sexism sold as religious fervor. A lot of people in our world treat women like mindless objects who need to be protected and shielded from everything...including making their own decisions...in the name of religion. I’ve noticed that the two groups most guilty of this are ultra-conservative Christians, and terror groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS. If you look, you’ll be shocked to see that these groups use almost identical language when they speak about women. Don’t do it.

Hatred and/or Violence

I hope you don’t support any groups that exist, by definition, to unite some people in hatred of others. If you do, don’t post about it. Just talk a great deal about it in your interview so that the hiring team knows not to invite you back.

Politics

This one is tough. Everyone wants to talk politics, especially in election years. The 24-hour news cycle pushes politics into our faces and demands we give it our attention.

As long as your politics aren’t extreme, you can probably get away with posting about it sometimes. However, if your Social Media feed is packed with nothing but politics, it’s going to cause you problems. Nobody wants to cross the Atlantic or fly a combat mission with a person who does nothing but talk politics. If this is you, find something else to post about.

Religion.

This is another tough one. It’s okay to be a person of faith, and even try to express that faith to uplift others. However, this can be taken too far.

I have great respect for one of my Air Force flying buddies and the Catholic church, but I had to completely unfollow him because his Social Media feed is almost nothing but religious posts aimed at guilting people into acting the way he wants them to. I’m happy for him to believe what he does, and for him to try and convince others. However, I don’t want to see that garbage every time I log into Social Media. Neither will the fighter squadron you’re applying to. Tone it down.

Badmouthing

You must be careful what and whom you complain about on Social Media. If a military unit or other employer sees that you complain incessantly about your past or current employers, why should they think you wouldn’t also complain about them in the future? Flying squadrons have plenty of dirty laundry. They don’t want or need people who hang that laundry out for the whole world to see.

Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll

Well, okay, maybe it’s okay to rock. However, you should never post words, pictures, or videos even implying that you use illegal drugs. It could be an instant show-stopper for the military or any civilian flying organization governed by the Department of Transportation (eg. all of them). Even showing excessive or irresponsible alcohol consumption is a bad idea. Alcohol isn’t illegal, but it causes big problems in many organizations. An employer worried about those kinds of problems will not hire you if it appears that you consume alcohol irresponsibly.

Sex should be an obvious one too, but it gets people in trouble all the time. Posting pictures of yourself naked or in any kind of skimpy clothing could be a problem. One of the main things that Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) investigators are looking for when they do your security clearance investigation is embarrassing items in your past that could be used by a foreign power to blackmail you in the future. Naked pictures are notoriously easy for intelligence services to exploit.

Note that in the era of camera-equipped mobile electronics, even SMS or other messaging services have essentially become social media. Don’t ever text someone a picture you wouldn’t want appearing at a family dinner or a job interview. (Even poor Captain America recently messed this one up.)

Oversharing

There are people who compulsively post everything they eat, every workout they do, and more. Although someone may actually care about getting a play-by-play of your life, most of the world doesn’t want to see it.

A military unit that is at all concerned about OPSEC (operational security) should shun any oversharer applying for a pilot slot with them. Although the continuous stream of minutia may seem meaningless right now, it could start to include critical information later on that our enemies can use. We used to say, “Loose lips sink ships.” Perhaps now it’s “Loose posts make ghosts.”