How can a tweet destroy your life.

klone, MSN, RN · Feb 16, 2015

I remember reading about that when it happened. About 6 months ago, I think?

Just goes to show, better think before you put stuff out there. Kids these days (good lord, did I just say that?) don't seem to realize the ramifications of this.

My husband read an article to me a week or so back about a 19yo girl who tweeted something to the effect of "Yay, start a ****** awful job tomorrow!" and an employee of the place where she was hired brought it to the attention of the restaurant owner. The restaurant owner, who had registered a Twitter account several years ago but had never used it, posted his very first tweet in response, saying "No, actually you don't! Good luck with your life!"

Eru IlÃºvatar · Feb 16, 2015

I remember reading about that when it happened. About 6 months ago, I think?
Just goes to show, better think before you put stuff out there. Kids these days (good lord, did I just say that?) don't seem to realize the ramifications of this.
My husband read an article to me a week or so back about a 19yo girl who tweeted something to the effect of "Yay, start a ****** awful job tomorrow!" and an employee of the place where she was hired brought it to the attention of the restaurant owner. The restaurant owner, who had registered a Twitter account several years ago but had never used it, posted his very first tweet in response, saying "No, actually you don't! Good luck with your life!"

The example you provide is a perfect one on how people, specially young people dont see social media as having any consequences. I presume when they were growing up that any posting was made for attention grabbing, etc, and had no real repercussions. But as employers, institutions, etc, started getting a social media presence, these kind of post online bring with them consequences, hence the impromptu firing of this 19 year old for bashing his employer.

In the article there is also the example of how a post without proper context led to a shame campaign against the poster. The posters took photos of doing actions forbidden by signs, and were doing so in a cemetery tombstone, but that was a memorial tombstone, and the interpretation without proper context was that they were offending the message of the memory itself, rather than the rule in the sign.

I believe there needs to be a big campaign to educate not just young people, but all people; of the consequences of expressing one's ideas in social media. Just as one would be shamed if they had gone to a public forum (public space) and screaming a racial slur, or something offending; they will be shamed in the case they did it in a social media place. Just because you can write anything, doesn't mean you should.

And this is a bigger lesson for nurses, and nursing students, since there are actual laws against divulging certain types of information we come in contact with. And people bashing your employer online is never a good thing, save your rants for your night out with friends or family gatherings.

ICURN3020 · Feb 17, 2015

How one can be as accomplished to be a senior director at a company and simultaneously be so immature and ignorant of the ramifications of their actions truly baffles me.

Red Kryptonite · Feb 17, 2015

I participated in the public shaming of Lindsey Stone (mentioned in the article and pictured below) and demanded her firing, and would happily do so again. As the wife of an Afghanistan veteran (he was in country when she did this), and descendant of many generations of veterans, there was no way I was letting this go. Doing dumb stuff based on running jokes with your friends is one thing. Putting this on a public feed to crap all over veterans with a war going on is quite another. And she wasn't some naive kid when she did this, she was THIRTY years old.

Maybe sometimes people don't deserve what they get.....and maybe sometimes they do.

The main focus of the article was a public relations professional. It defies belief that she couldn't see how stupid and damaging those tweets would be. If she really didn't understand that, she deserved to lose her job, because she clearly didn't understand public relations and how to use media well!

Red Kryptonite · Feb 17, 2015

Dang it, forgot the picture:

Eru IlÃºvatar · Feb 17, 2015

Dang it, forgot the picture:

From the picture I get what she was trying to do. The whole do the opposite of what the sign says, but she forgot to be sensible to the meaning behind the place.

I don't know what to say about this case, because I believe she had a precedent of doing this with many other signs before. So this falls on a gray area for me.

Her actions were misinterpreted I believe, and that lead to her fallout. I would need more info in the matter to make a better judgement.

Not_A_Hat_Person, RN · Feb 17, 2015

According to the story, the cemetery pic was part of a running joke she has with a friend. It was a stupid thing to do, but it also was not meant for public consumption.

Red Kryptonite · Feb 17, 2015

According to the story, the cemetery pic was part of a running joke she has with a friend. It was a stupid thing to do, but it also was not meant for public consumption.

Then she shouldn't have made it public.

PacoUSA, BSN, RN · Feb 17, 2015

Then she shouldn't have made it public.

Apparently, she didn't know her account was public. Not that this makes it any less reprehensible.

Sent from my iPad using allnurses

Mulan · Feb 17, 2015

I don't see how the context ("She and her co-worker Jamie, who posted the picture on Facebook, had a running joke about disobeying signs â€” smoking in front of No Smoking signs, for example â€” and documenting it." from the above article) makes it/or would make it any better.

Smoking in front of a no smoking sign?

This was a 32 year old.

Eru IlÃºvatar · Feb 17, 2015

I don't see how the context ("She and her co-worker Jamie, who posted the picture on Facebook, had a running joke about disobeying signs â€” smoking in front of No Smoking signs, for example â€” and documenting it." from the above article) makes it/or would make it any better.
Smoking in front of a no smoking sign?
This was a 32 year old.

Well context is important, there is a certain legality that protects for example comedians that are know for doing parody of things. So in her context she was know to have this running joke about disobeying signs and orders. In no means was her intention, according to the context to desecrate the memorial. So the reaction to her actions are emotional and without using the proper context.

I can based on this info, say that i would not have accused her of desecrating the meaning of the memorial, since thats not what the meaning of the picture was.

A Facebook photo could be as similar as a piece from a photographer, in which they portrait something trying to show a message, so context is important.