I was bored and doing what I usually do when I'm bored; alternating between Little Dorrit and checking e-mail when I saw this :
Key words: "fired" and "tweet"
I click.
Damn it's that old issue once again. The ugly side of Social Media.
You know what, I'm not even mad at the semi-famous actress who got him in trouble. She behaved how a normal irate (and spiteful) person would behave when they are embarrassed. These types of people are all politeness and niceties until they get insulted. Then they show their claws. I've seen non-famous people do this plenty. It's a typical human trait.
The people I'm really disgusted with are the managers at the restaurant who fired him without warning; calling him into the office with a print out of his tweets.
One blogger (Fashion Killer)
wrote :
Stop talking about celebrities and VIPs (no matter how stupid some of them really are) especially if you're working in a place that's full of them. If they found out that someone from their favorite hang-outs is following their affairs, they back off and "hide" elsewhere - and the establishment lost its important customers and its significant profit.
Valid point. He was fired because management freaked out at the thought of this actress complaining to her other famous friends, and ultimately they might lose their glamorous clientele. Oh no
Money! is! involved! now!
I bet people will be divided based on class. Working class people will all rally towards him. So will middle class people who have more autonomous jobs but still have to answer to a higher management. Only that minority of The Ruling Class and some ~others~ (like Fashion Killer) will blame him.
Whatever, that argument can go on forever and will wind itself in circles.
What really irks me is the use of Twitter, Facebook, blogs, anything else? to get their authors in trouble. Yes that one incident where some worker(s) from Pizza Hut posted a Youtube video of themselves doing un-hygienic things to a customer's order was a pretty valid reason to fire that person. But something involving your opinions??? Gee I'm sorry, but if there's one thing people should completely own in this world, it's their thoughts, ideas, feelings, and opinions.
Not everyone can be a 'Dooce'. (She was fired for writing about her boss on her blog, and now earns enough money from her blog through traffic & ads to support both herself and her husband.) What about the people who get in trouble for the same thing, and that's ... it?
What interests me is the question of whether it is okay to get someone in trouble for what they write on their slice of the Internet.
Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, and various blogging platforms are 'marketed' to be your OWN *personal* space. Every convenience is thought of to better help you personalize your little plot of Internet real estate. Thousands of skins, layouts, colors, fonts, and tons more options to be found on the web or through your own creativity to really make your page your own. The very name Myspace implies this. It's supposed to be Your [safe] Space. And wasn't that one of the first widely used social networking sites?
Secondly, one of the main goals of these networking sites is to ... duh, network and find people similar to yourself and ignore those who are different.
Another main goal is for the selves we express on these sites to be our 'true' selves or an 'honest' representation of our lives.
Then again, maybe those words are meaningless since we all want to "put our best foot forward" especially in spaces where first impressions are EVERYTHING. We choose flattering photos to use, we pretty up our blog with cool header/sidebar images, we try to sound intelligent/funny/charming. We create and re-invent ourselves.
We think these sites are personal, relaxing, for fun. Who's going to suspect some management person, hidden under an ambiguous user name, watching what we write?
What if that waiter wrote an article about the famous person and got it published in a sleazy tabloid? Could he still get fired for that or would it be infringing upon his freedom of speech? What if it was a large reputable newspaper?
Well, this person has gotten lots of positive support from the online community. His
twitter followers went from 22 to over 900, most of the commenters on his blog are sympathetic, and hey, I read about him on Yahoo news, and he was interviewed by the LA Times.
He'll find another job.
The point is, these sites are personal. They are on the Internet which is public property, but seriously, managers, corporate jerks, and people with no sense of humor, stay out of people's personal sites! No one's mandating you to read it. It's your choice. If you don't like it, leave and find something you do like. If it offends someone, so what? Getting offended, insulted, embarrassed is part of life. Haven't you ever been in a crowded subway? And if it's a famous person that got insulted, even more SO WHAT. That's part of being famous you know. I know you think your money should be able to protect you from ever getting hurt or slighted, but ... it doesn't. You are in the public eye; of COURSE you will be subject to more opinions and judgements of yourself. Deal with it. Buy yourself a diamond studded band-aid. Or pay a pricey therapist to soothe your ruffled feathers.
I'm starting to see class and race as more of an issue than gender.
