One Tweet Gone Wrong

Have you ever updated your status or tweeted something you immediately wished you hadn't? I'm sure we all have. The tempting nature of real time updates allows any of our thoughts to be published to the web in a matter of seconds.

You can share your excitement, boredom or rage with your friends, family and co-workers the instant you are experiencing it. Awesome, right?

Wrong. Status updates and tweets can turn you into your biggest enemy if you are not careful.

A recent story about an unlucky tweeter loosing her job points to the danger of sharing feelings in real time. The now unemployed woman accidentally tweeted a personal tweet to her company's twitter account, which happens to be the news station KTVX-TV, the ABC station in Salt Lake.

The mistake is easy to make for anyone managing multiple twitter accounts, and could be harmless depending on the tweet. However, this tweet was not as easily forgotten as it was erased.

Tweet from a KTVX-TV employee as seen on lostremote.com

Of course the station quickly deleted the post and issued an apology. But what about the poor tweeter? One minute she is tweeting what she thinks is an innocent expression of her discontent, and the next she is fired!

If anyone was unaware of the power of the internet before, take this as a primary example.

This instance highlights an ongoing debate about the privacy of social media, and directs attention to the question of whether or not employers should have full access to their employees facebook and twitter accounts.

Regardless of the debate, one truth remains: facebook and twitter accounts are voluntarily set up by their account holders, for the most part. Therefore, any tweets, status updates, pictures or personal information that is volunteered by the account holder is fair game for any one who has access to the web.

This truth cannot be stressed enough to those who, like the tweeter from the story, enjoy updating their status and twitter accounts without thinking twice about the post. But situations like these are increasing, and it is important for everyone to censor what they post before it is too late.

Remembers, it is the "world wide web" for a reason. Don't let your social media get the best of you.

If you liked this blog post, view another take on the story.