If you’re a Facebook holdout, or have chosen to abandon the social media hangout for any number of reasons, be prepared to be labeled a misfit — or worse.
The net has been abuzz this week about a story attributed to a German newsmagazine in which a psychologist concluded that accused killers Norwegian Anders Breivik and Colorado theatre gunman James Holmes’s slim social media presences were suspicious.
“Not having a Facebook account could be the first sign that you are a mass murderer,” is how tech news site slashdot summed up Der Taggspiegel’s story.
With a global population of seven billion and about 955 million registered Facebook user — technological and economic barriers notwithstanding — that’s a scary proposition.
However, an immediate concern may be the weight placed on the social network by employers.
While the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services have backed off earlier demands for the Facebook passwords of workers to check their profiles for troubling behaviour, it’s still seen as a tool to vet potential employees.
“Anecdotally, I’ve heard both job seekers and employers wonder aloud about what it means if a job candidate doesn’t have a Facebook account. Does it mean they deactivated it because it was full of red flags? Are they hiding something?” asked a Forbes.com writer.
And the dating game tells a similar story.
Slate advice columnist Emily Yoffe told one woman: “I’m fine with people not having a Facebook page if they don’t want one. However…. If you’re of a certain age and you meet someone who you are about to go to bed with, and that person doesn’t have a Facebook page, you may be getting a false name. It could be some kind of red flag.”
For the digital generation, that kind of sentiment is understandable, said Queens University media professor Sidneyeve Matrix.
“Facebook really is the way that you vet folks that you like, you cross paths and socialize with,” she said. “There’s a lot of common sense wisdom there, because we do want to vet people.”