For those who use the social media micro-blogging site Twitter to comment about their jobs or industries, don't be deceived by the ease at which you can transmit your inner most thoughts to the world.Those tiny tweets of 140 characters or less can have severe consequences when combined with poor impulse control and bad judgment.
In the latest example of Twitter gone wrong, R&B singer, Chris Brown, fresh off his graduation from court-mandated domestic violence classes, engaged in a highly publicized twitter scuffle with a former member of the group B2K, Raz B. During the hours long Twitter rant, Brown managed to sling homophobic slurs and mock child molestation all in 140 characters or less.
Initially only black gossip blogs went crazy about the Twitter scuffle, however, Chris Brown soon found his tweets to be the subject of posts on the powerful entertainment industry site, TMZ. It was not a good PR day for someone fighting to re-enter the public's good graces following his brutal attack on pop star Rhianna. Shortly after TMZ posted his Twitter rant, Mr. Brown's publicist wrote an apology for him.
During the episode, Mr. Brown complained that he was being treated unfairly:
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D'Angelo
Michael D'Angelo Archer been called a founding father of the neo-soul movement of the mid- to late '90s. This son of a preacher man and Virginia native had his first mainstream success in 1995 with the single "Brown Sugar." Five years later, in 2000, he won a Grammy for Best Male R&B act and his second album 'Voodoo' won for Best R&B Album of the year.
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its wack as f*ck that everybody can bash me... but soon as i defend myself its world war 3.I TAKE SH*T FROM everybody... its cool though. (Necole Bitchie)
To the contrary, young Chris, every day ordinary people are held accountable for what they tweet.
David Le worked for the Washington, D.C. Department of Employment Services in Anacostia. That is until Mr. Le sent tweets reportedly calling the people of Anacostia "ghetto." In addition, he bragged about being lazy and being instructed to loaf around on the clock:
thank goodness my boss is making things easy, he told me to pretend to do work so he can mark me down for hours...
one of the schools I am in charge of is Anacostia HS. If you are from here, you know ANACOSTIA... about 100+ murders in one year...
They decided to just pay us for 40 hours a week bc we are too lazy to sign in and out...
In americas ghetto anacostia... If i get scared i will just yell chinese carry out! They will not shoot me.
Needless to say, David Le (who is Asian) was very quickly let go as a result of this thoughtless digital rambling.
But don't let his story lead you to believe that you can tweet what you want between jobs. People even get fired from jobs they don't already have for sending unprofessional statements over Twitter. After receiving a job offer from CISCO, Connor Riley foolishly tweeted thoughts pondering whether she would accept a "fat" check from CISCO despite they fact that she would hate working at there:
Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.
Not smart. After CISCO caught on to her lack of gratitude, she lost her offer and no longer has to worry about that long drive.
You would think that stories like these are unusual, or that Chris Brown is a particularly idiotic case, but he is not. There are many long lists of people who have suffered severe consequences for what they have tweeted.
Twitter is not a toy. It is not your therapist. It is not your best friend on the phone that you share your most intimate thoughts with. Twitter is the front page of your local newspaper or the anchor desk of the nightly newscast. If you don't want to see your thoughts on the front page of the local paper, then don't tweet them. If you don't want to get fired from your job, avoid tweets attacking your employer, customers or peers.
Did you know that the Library of Congress is preserving your tweets? Yes, it's that serious. Even if you don't have a high profile like Chris Brown, you still need to exercise extreme common sense when posting to your social networks. What you say on the Twitter platform might in fact last your lifetime.
Gina McCauley is the CEO of the Blogging While Brown Conferenceand the blogsMichelle Obama Watch and What About Our Daughters. She is currently completing her first book, 'Michelle Obama Watch.'
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Comments: (23)
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By: Blessed People on 1/05/2011 8:06AM
2011 and were still talking about Young Chris... 50 cents and Soujaboy had a twitter beef going on and nothing has been sad. So at the age of 21 young Chris has just crossed over into adulthood which hasn't taken place as of yet. We all made dumb choices at those early ages... Yes young Chris shouldn't have fallen for the bait from the unstable Raz, he has been seeking attention for awhile. But where's the article about RazB's brother threating to kill young Chris and as of yesterday posted a second video walking the streets of LA, looking for young Chris... where's the article of RazB denying that he even wrote my tweets in the first place. Yes maybe young Chris has a lot to learn about being quite sometimes, but must he constantly have to take mess off of people because of the almost two year old incident. I wish that bv would find someone else to bash this year!
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By: natnat on 1/06/2011 2:39PM
very well said.
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By: unknow on 1/05/2011 9:34AM
yall need to get yall story right talking aout chris brown have anger problems when raz b started the hole thing its a new year and yall still talking about that stuff let the boy be
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By: cher on 1/06/2011 5:08PM
i agree
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By: Likylake on 1/06/2011 6:13PM
i agree with you totally ! every sice that Rihanna altercation they been all on his back about everything ! GOSH !
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By: Maxine Thompson on 1/05/2011 10:22AM
On my former job as a social worker, there was a saying, "If you didn't write it down, it didn't happen." This carried an underlying threat that if you didn't document home visits on a monthly basis and a child died in the interim, you couldn't say you visited said child. This taught me the art of documentation.
However, with the Internet that rule should read, "When you write it down, it remains for perpetuity." Watch what you say.
Maxine Thompson
http://www.maxinethompsonbooks.com
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By: sbm on 1/05/2011 11:35AM
gotta love you media idiots...You jump on where ever the wave is headed..Of course thisis chris borwn who "brutally" attacked poor rhianna...noonementions she hit him first and scratched his damn face....now some fruitcake..and thats what he is mind you....calls his name out and Chris Borwn responds and he is condemned..Get OFF OF IT!!! ALSO THE STUPIDEST WORD THAT SEEMS TO BE INESCAPABLE NOWADAYS HOMOPHOBIC///wtf? Homo- means HUMAN...period...I think we should be saying hetero-sexual phobic...cause thats what you gays and supporters seem to be...becuase the minute someone disagrees you label them. But wait...isnt that what makes someone "homophobic" according to you? Labeling someone? Its like Black People with the word "nigger" We say it..our "stars" say it...the minute a white person says it..they are "racist"...its crazy. Who wouldnt have responded to that asshole raz b...and by the way he is alleging he was molested. If you are that concerned you should be attacking the alleged people who did this to him..not talking about Chris Brown mocking Him. TMZ was just talking about how the dude is nuts and largely ignored. The media and you people who write it is poison, you stand for nothing and believe in nothing...you prey on peopls problems and destroy characters for fun...you should all be gased and fed to hungry lions...enjoy A HOLE
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By: Sin on 1/05/2011 11:07AM
To SBM: I wish I could reach out right now and Hi-five you. Your'e absolutely 100% right.
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By: bmarcushook on 1/05/2011 1:53PM
WHY WHEN WHITE FOLKS SPIN STORIES WE ARE QUICK TO ACCUSE INDIVIDUALS.STEP BACK AND WEIGH RAZ B NEED HELP SO CHRIS HAS TO BE A TARGET.THESE YOUNG BLACK MEN NEED UPLIFTING.THEY ARE OUR BLACK CHILDREN WHOM NEED ENCOURAGEMENT.THEY KNOW FROM THE PAST HISTORY THAT WE DON'T SUPPORT OUR OWN THAT MAKE THEM BIGGER TARGETS.
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By: Alexis Stodghill on 1/05/2011 1:55PM
Did any of you read the article?
It's about how crazy Twitter rants can ruin your career. In case you have not noticed, this is happening to Chris Brown.
There are other non-famous people listed in the article to provide real world examples.
This is about career advice tied to a real world happening. Sorry if you don't like it, but it's the truth. People post rants on Twitter and ruin their careers -- like Chris Brown, who has a lot more to lose and a history of violence he is trying to overcome, unlike Raz B.
If you don't like the truth, sorry! But I hope other people can see this as a cautionary tale about how they use Twitter. It's called learning from others' mistakes.
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