How can a tweet destroy your life.

Libby1987 · Feb 18, 2015

There is another problem besides the stupidity of the tweets, or childish shenanigans at a place where too many people grieve for anything to be 'funny'.
The article is more about the viciousness of the public reactions, and the consequences like losing your job and your previous social status (however humble) and becoming a pariah.
In my opinion, a person opens themselves up to the mob tweeting against our sacred lightning rods like sexism and racism. Obviously the consequences are bad. I wouldn't do it however much I wanted to, just because of stories like these.
But the mob itself is the point of this article. People used to go to public executions or punishments for entertainment purposes, they still do in other places. It's like the mob mentality is alive and well however indecent it would be to go and laugh at someone being whipped or hung. We can do it in the safety of being anonymous, which is one part of how mobs form, as individuals get absorbed into a 'herd mind' or whatever. Whatever the 'lightning rod' issue is, sexism and racism in this article, a mob forms in response, and the individuals will have some shared world view that the lightning rod issue trips.
The worst thing about tweeting is how brief your tweets must be, and how easily context is lost or disregarded. A single tweet could be 'heard' many different ways, depending on what YOU yourself 'hear', which is in turn influenced by your pre-existing attitudes and belief system. The word "abortion", without any context at all, is going to mean something very different to a research MD and a Christian. To one it means a pregnancy ended before term and to the other one of our greatest human failings. Tweets are dangerous!
Which leads me to think, how a tweet could end your career when it is actually a minuscule piece of information that could mean a number of things but no one knows for sure without the context?
Are we willing to participate in a mob that causes a person to lose their basics of safety (home, job, status) when we don't really know what was meant? Should the immature woman gaffing at a veteran's cemetery have lost all three when she meant no insult and had a fruitcake idea of fun? I don't think so. If she offended so many people, who had to put their own agenda as her context, who's problem should it be? It shouldn't be hers. Having her Facebook spammed for a while by offended people seems more reasonable, maybe she'll think twice about her privacy settings, but to lose your job and be hated and threatened? That's just wrong! Too much punishment. And the mob . . . how embarrassing to be caught up in something like that?

I was trying to quote your previous post as well but I lack the skill..

You have a good, decent and wise streak a mile wide, in all of your posts but this one brings the house down, and I wish more could hear you.

But instead I'm afraid your words have been brushed aside by many with the need to keep repeating to each other how social media is not private.

Farawyn · Feb 18, 2015

Racism is ugly. I'm certain we can all agree on that. Not condoning the choice to tweet this, but the reaction is disproportionate.
Daniel Tosh, CK Lewis, George Carlin, Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and countless others have made millions doing what this woman has done. Used tongue in cheek, satirical comments to highlight a large issue. She was doing it for, what she thought would be, a small audience. It grew bigger than she-or anyone else!- could have imagined. My sympathies are with her for the backlash she has received.

Louis CK

Yes, and they are (were, RIP George) comedians who are known for satire and when you tune in you know what you are getting.

This chick was in PR, right?

She should have gotten fired. What a dope.

(Not you, kidzcare!)

Mulan · Feb 18, 2015

After reading all this, I googled.

There's a facebook page, "(this woman's name) needs to be fired" is the name of the page.

Under posts to page, there is another picture, where this woman allegedly is mocking participants of the Special Olympics.

Jaykalkyn, BSN, RN · Feb 18, 2015

The sad thing is just about everything is made for public consumption these days. She should have done a better job at ensuring, or at least trying to, that she was keeping her information "private" (yeah, right). Or better yet, maybe get a better sense of humor as some things aren't funny, at all. She should have known better.

DeeAngel · Feb 18, 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.

Thats the whole thing though, it doesn't matter that it was supposed to be private, things get out there and intentions no longer matter only the reality.

kidzcare · Feb 18, 2015

What a dope.
(Not you, kidzcare!)

Ha! I don't think I've ever been called a dope! I must use that word more frequently!

And thanks for correcting the name for me. When I typed it I thought it looked wrong

morte, LPN, LVN · Feb 18, 2015

I don't need to be reminded why those soldiers died. I have relatives buried there, NONE of whom would have "gotten a kick out of it". They would have been horrified. You've made one heckuva wrong global assumption.

or!! perhaps YOU have.

ReinventingMyselfAgain, MSN, RN · Feb 18, 2015

There's a facebook page, "(this woman's name) needs to be fired" is the name of the page.
Under posts to page, there is another picture, where this woman allegedly is mocking participants of the Special Olympics.

while the latter part of this post validates this persons stupidly, I do not believe it is our (society's) place to decide the fate of people like this.

We we have become a society of vigilantes. While I do believe this person acted foolishly, (and did get what she deserved) I think we need to worry about ourselves. She is not a criminal- she did not endanger the life of another human being (i.e. killed, abused or molested anyone, and is in a profession that would potentially endanger any human beings). If that were the case, yeah, I feel a lot More passionate about it).

I also think we need to stop specifically targeting the younger generation, regarding what they are doing. This woman is in her thirties, she is not a child. I knew of a student in their 50s who made a bonehead move involving a cellphone/camera in clinical. As the mother of a teen, I am not suggesting we don't continuously drill this into their heads. I share every story like this with my teen, regardless of the age of the offender. Th bottom line that people of all age need to know is that there are consequences to your actions, regardless of who was supposed to see it/hear it/know about it. Whether it's on the Internet or not.

Graduatenurse14 · Feb 18, 2015

IMO, the PR lady is really dumb and showed her subtle/not-so-subtle racism and cultural incompetency. She showed her "privileged, narrow world-view" is not doing her any favors. She's very bad at PR and should lose her job.

The other lady, while I'm horrified at the disgrace showed to the Brave, if she and friend have a running thing doing the opposite of what the signs say (smoking in front of No Smoking signs) just cause they can, is also dumb and crass but I'm not sure that she meant to mock the soldiers and the sacrifices themselves. She needs a big history lesson and taught that all parody and mocking is not equal.

In light of recent events in Europe, we are all very fortunate to be able to say and do offensive things and even post them for the world to see yet know that no one is going to try to kill us because we live in the Home of the free because of the Brave.

diagnosticator · Feb 18, 2015

I read the article and there was nothing scary about it. It just goes to show that you can held more accountable for your actions today than ever before. It's not a "mistake" if somebody discovers your true colors and you cry foul.

If anything, I see this as a very positive story. By the public banding together to shame those with bigotry, we are instilling a social/global value that this is not something to be tolerated. If people said racist things in public forums and nobody blinked an eye, then the general populace would start doing the same.

Aliareza, BSN · Feb 18, 2015

I don't agree with your private life affecting your professional life. I don't think it should be held against you at work if you show up to walmart in pajama pants. I also don't think Facebook pictures should affect your job.
But my opinion doesn't mean crap because the reality is that it does. My fiancÃ© and I deleted both of our Facebook accounts years ago ( moreso because we had people barging into our lives from the past and starting problems) to prevent any nonsense. And now I'm so glad we did. It's scary to think that your job might look at your Facebook.
People have to realize that just as one holds their own strong opinion about something, there are several other people who hold opposing opinions. If you post something controversial, expect blowback.
You have to be so careful because there's racism, ageism, sexism, bullying...all these things and more and people are so easily offended. It's so easy to take things out of context. What you and your friends might think is funny other people might just get highly offended and then the public shaming begins. And companies don't wanna be involved in that nonsense. And honestly, I don't blame them.
Bottom line....you never know who's watching. Be mindful.

I absolutely agree with all of this.

I think the biggest surprise to me in nursing wasn't the work load, the stress, the high patient ratios, the dirty work, any of that. I researched and was prepared for that. It's the stringent and judgmental nature of many nurses and all nursing programs.

For instance, the going to Wal-Mart in your house pants example from the quoted user's post. I've worked a lot of jobs, many of them as a professional, and never had anybody tell me what I couldn't wear when I was off the clock. One of the first things they told me when I got hired by my local hospital? "You should always be aware that your appearance reflects on us. Don't leave your house in sweat pants to go to the store. Definitely don't wear jeans to the hospital ever, even if you're just picking up your pay check."

I was flabbergasted. I somewhat understand looking nice if you're going to be coming into work for something, because patients may recognize you despite it being your day off. But jeans can look nice, and even if these people disagree, is it going to be that detrimental to my patients to find out that on her day off, their nurse (like much of the rest of the population) wears jeans?? And now you're also trying to tell me that I can't go out into my community in my gym clothes because God forbid somebody see me at the store on a lazy afternoon on my day off and think I'm a bad nurse? How about nope!

I've seen the same thing come up in class discussions about tattoos, hair dye, etc. It's all superficial crap. None of it has any bearing on what kind of nurse I'm going to be. It's very sad to me that in this era of customer surveys being directly tied to reimbursement rates, we're allowing patients to dictate things that don't at all relate to patient care. I'm not willing to sacrifice my personal autonomy during my time off for the sake of any job that isn't paying me to. People tell me that nurses save lives so it's justified, and I think that just makes it worse. I'm a highly trained, highly skilled professional who saves lives and yet I can't be trusted to make the decision of what pants I need to wear to Wal-Mart on my day off. Psh!

We're part of a very emotional profession. It shouldn't give our employers or our clients the right to scrutinize every aspect of our personal lives and make professional decisions about the things we do when we aren't on their time clock.

Red Kryptonite · Feb 18, 2015

Wow, Aliareza, that's insane. That would be an employer I'd be extremely hesitant to work for.