Social Media - Privacy

Today I decided to review my privacy settings on my social media accounts. On Facebook, there is a feature to view your profile as 'public', which is how your profile would appear to someone who was not a friend, i.e. a potential employer. When using this feature, I saw there were a few posts which I would prefer not to be seen by anyone. For example, it also came up with an album of myself and my friends rock climbing when we were 14. It made me feel a bit uncomfortable to know that these could be viewed by anyone. Although these weren't inappropriate or incriminating, I still wouldn't want a potential employer to see it. I subsequently put my profile on private and hid all of my posts from more than four years ago.

I also decided to disable the ability to find my profile from my email address and phone number. My email is given to many potential employers and they'd easily be able to look me up. I would prefer for them to not view my profiles as I like to use my social media accounts for personal expression. I'd like to feel comfortable posting whatever I want. I don't believe I post anything that would get me in trouble, however I think it might look unprofessional for employers if they see how much I casually tweet about my favourite artists and television shows.

I've also changed the privacy on my Twitter profile. My screen name was previously my full name, making myself easy to find online. I now just have my first name, and can no longer be found by my email.