How Social Media Can Affect the Business World

In todays business world the usage of social media is an extremely hot topic in reference to the hiring process. The main argument when social media is being presented is whether it should be used in the business world, or if it shouldn’t be a factor and should be left out completely. There are many different sides of evaluation in this widely scoped issue, so it is in my best interest to focus on only one of the many issues included in social media. This issue is the debate of whether or not social media should be used during the hiring process. In my opinion, social media should not be used in the hiring process for a number of reasons. Using social media as a factor of hiring a new employee is an invasion of privacy to all applicants. There are many thing presented on these types of sites that could be taken out of context which portray the social media person and not the actual applicant. This topic will continue to surface as the growth of social media rises and will become an even more relevant issue in years to come. In the article, “The Writing on the (Facebook) Wall: The Use of Social Networking Sites in Hiring Decisions,” by Victoria Brown, she states that a survey conducted in 2009 found that 45% of hiring managers reported searching social networking sites to learn about potential candidates for hiring. This was an increase from the 22% of managers reported in 2008. With how much social media has grown over the past few years, its assumable to believe that the percentage is much greater now and it’s important to be informed on this issue. The two social networking sites that I will focus on and that are most popular today in the technology world are Facebook and Twitter. These two websites are also the most commonly used during the hiring process.

First off, using social media sites should not be used in the hiring process because it is an invasion of privacy to the potential applicant. Since the development of social media over the past few years has increased, it has been used as a form of evaluation in the hiring process and many managers are starting to abuse the privacy rights of potential employees. Social media gives the hirers more information about the applicants then they already have. Even though having as many resources as possible for a potential employee isn’t a negative aspect, there are many concerns about certain resources being used. A main concern is obviously abusing privacy rights of applicants. In the article “Invasion of the Social Networks,” written by Robert Sprague, he explains how applicants have guaranteed privacy rights. These rights can also be found in the Title Seven of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which states: Applicants are guaranteed in the hiring process the right to not having to share information about their Race, Sex, Religion, National Origin, Sexual Orientation, Age, Disability and other person information about them. Since a lot of Facebook profiles are unmonitored and