I love Facebook! However I love it for a few reasons and I hate it for others.
I have a few personal rules from Facebook, for the following reasons-
1. I am a Physiotherapist.
2. I am a private person.
3. I am very versed in the use of social medial- the pitfalls, the benefits and well read on how Facebook can effect society/friendships and relationships.
I was very glad when the CSP this last few months wrote a very interesting article about using social media. I have been advocating caution for many years whilst using Facebook/tweeting/texting and various other methods of socialising.
What the article did not say much was the devious ways patients/public/employers will use the information to find out who you are, what you are like and make a decision about whether to employ you, try and befriend you, or just make your life a misery.
I know for a fact that many employers will check you out on google/facebook/myspace etc. so make sure that how you are seen on the internet is how you want to be seen by others!
The advice below is from the CSP-
Playing it safe
- Don’t use sites to discuss work-related issues
- Don’t use sites to enter into any personal relationships with patients
- Don’t respond to requests from patients to befriend you. Simply tick the ‘decline’ option giving no reason
- Don’t use sites to post any words or pictures that may be seen by society at large as unprofessional
- Do set your privacy settings to ensure that only known and invited real-life friends can access your sites,
- And do not allow strangers access to any of your information this can protect you from unwanted advances from patients
- Turn on the highest settings of privacy on your social networking- including how people find you- you can block people from finding you- therefore avoiding the heartache of “declining” requests. Patients just think you do not have a Facebook account.
- Keep it small- those people who you know and love is my rule.
- Private and Public should be kept apart- if you do not want to tell people what you got up to at the weekend- how drunk you were, how you were sick over the dog etc, then do not let it on the internet- or do not let the General public read it!
- Do not allow any patients to befriend you- once you do you open yourself up to having a torrent of problems.
- Always be suspicious, not everyone wants to be your friend! some people will have ulterior motives.
- Do not be naive – people will search for you, use the information on the net about you and make a judgement call on you. So if there is a picture of you doing extreme ironing on your portable plinth whilst drunk…. then what do you expect will happen. Your job and reputation is important and valuable and should be treated as such.
I could talk all day about the use of Facebook and the morals surrounding it. Some psychologists believe that if you do not have a social net work page – you may be dysfunctional socially and even have psychopathic tendencies. How you use that page can also determine your life, employment and career!
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