Thanks For The Advice, But I'm Not Deleting Any Facebook Photos

A young woman in college raised a topic of much debate on NPR this afternoon. She explained that her advisor told her she needed to take down all her pictures on Facebook that she wouldn't want an employer to see. She then complained about how she really didn't want to delete them. The consensus on the show seemed to be that no, you don't have to delete all your pictures, but employers don't have to hire you either.

Why are we still talking about whether potential employers are going to Google you or check out your Facebook profile? Why are we still talking about deleting Facebook photos at all? Whether they're going to check you out or not, you should protect your online identity as if they are. Which is why I'm not deleting all my "incriminating" Facebook photos or censoring my comments. I'm reading the privacy policies and protecting my account to make sure that only my friends can see my photos and details of my account.

Facebook is personal. It's the one social network where I keep in touch with family and friends across space and time. It's the one place I can talk about a messy family drama divorce; learn about my sister's engagement in Italy; commiserate with hungover friends; share and laugh at pictures of our recent beach trip. If I want to know about the intimate details of your life and want you to know about mine, then I'm gonna let you know: with a friend request. If not, don't worry, I might just connect with you somewhere else (email? LinkedIn? Twitter?).

Point being, it's personal. Why would you even let a casual observer such as a potential employer peruse your personal Facebook profile? That's like letting someone you barely know walk around your house uninvited. Put a lock on your front door (a.k.a. go set your profile information & search privacy settings)! Then you silly little college students don't have to get mad because you had to delete all your SBY2K10 photos.

Take what others advise with a grain of salt. Be your own advocate. Do your own research. BE SMART.

Sidenote: Facebook privacy aside, if you're an employer that won't hire a normal 20-something who goes out for drinks with their friends on the weekends or has pictures of themselves at a party, I probably don't want to work for you anyways. No hard feelings :)

Sex Week at The Next Great Generation

I write for a website called The Next Great Generation where Millenials write about everything and anything related to their generation. This past week (February 15th - February 21st) has been "Sex Week", which means all featured articles relate back to Gen Y sex somehow. Although all 21 articles are worth reading, I thought I would share some of my favorites (read: does not mean I agree with all of the authors) and the ones with the most interesting debate in the comments in case you don't have time to read all of them!

For Guys, The First Date Is All About Sex by Armando Samuels

Bisexuality: The Punching Bag Orientation by Lauren Schumacher

Sex, Stigma and STDs by Carlee Mallard - Hey, that's me!(But I really did think it was pretty good)

My Decision To Take A Lover by Alex Pearlman

The Perils of The Perpetually Single Gen Y Female by Valeria Villarroel

And some of the articles that gave me a good chuckle:

The Interview: Elle Magazine's E. Jean Carroll by Gillian Maffeo

Rated Y-17: Gen Y's Top 10 Erotic Gems in Film and Television by David Ricaud

Requirements for a Sex Life Worthy of a Major Motion Picture by Lindsay King

I hope you all enjoy reading them as much as I have this week!

What Is "interesting" Anyways? College Was.

I'm three years out of college now. I find myself looking back at my life and the former college-lives of others around me and can't help but feel like most of us were much more interesting people in college.

I look back at pictures from college:

• Black & white shots with my film SLR in Pittsburgh
• Strangers I met in Rome while studying abroad in Florence
• Me with my Swiss foreign exchange student waiting in line to get into a concert
• Fashion shots of aspiring models printed in my college fashion magazine
• My family and me covered in sulfur mud from a volcano in Colombia, South America
• Heck, it was impressive enough that I even took so many damn photographs (and some were pretty good).

I look back at my resume and notice a laundry list of activities, accomplishments, projects, research interests, and course completions. Tutoring. Mentoring. Ushering. Photographing. Editing. Traveling. Dissecting (pigs). Personal Assisting. Reading. Researching. Writing (like, a lot). Crushing. Loving. Organizing. Leading. Perfecting. Exploring. Freaking (out).

Yea, we do a lot of freaking out in college. We don't know what life is going to look like post-college or how we'll support ourselves (if you haven't been already). So when I got a permanent full-time job I stopped freaking out. I got immediately comfortable with my (relatively) stress-free life. But I look at my life since starting this job 1 year and 7 months ago and life just doesn't seem as interesting. Of course it's mostly all my own fault. I mean, it's my life and it's up to me to make the most of it. But it seems to me that the general population with permanent full-time jobs were much more interesting in college. We get so content just collecting the paycheck every month that we spend our free time going to bars, restaurants, watching TV, and going on the occasional vacation. Is that interesting? Is there more to it?

I find myself wanting to talk to people about my past or my future instead of my present. But am I still that person from college that I think was so interesting? Was I really ever that interesting to begin with? Am I still interesting and I don't know it? What is interesting anyways: popular, exciting, creative, foreign?

Note: After posing this question Sunday night, @ElleLaMode responded with some ideas of her own. You should check out her perspective over here.