Social Media Essay

The current job market is extremely competitive, which makes the recruiter’s job much more difficult as there are many potential hires. To mitigate this problem, many recruiters use social media, especially twitter and facebook, for their hiring process. They use social media to whittle down the myriad of applicants. A question that is asked is whether if it is actually ethical for employers to utilize social networking sites to inspect potential employees. It is ethical for employers to use social media, because what a person does outside of their employment is an accurate indication of one’s character, which can give insight to an employer on ones work ethic and ones future job performance. First of all, to actually decide if it is an ethical practice; one must think what do social media offer to the employers? Social media provides a “preview into the character and potential of future employees” (Mason).Up until now information of this sort was not accessible to employers. Because of this reason, many employers hired people that may not be correct for their business. Employees can easily falsify themselves to employers, which makes the employers believe that they are actually worthy of the job, when in reality they are not. By searching through social media, employers can be sure that the employees that they employ will fit well into their business. For example, some businesses and organizations require that their employees practice certain religions/political views/philosophies. Instead of taking a risk that the person they employ has equivalent beliefs, the employers can get on a social networking site, and actually check the person’s beliefs, which tells the employers whether or not if the employee was truthful from the beginning. Today, 92% of employers are using or arranging to use social media for their hiring process (Schawbel). Many feel that using social media is against their privacy, but it is their choice whether or not if they want to put