How stupid can I be?

On Wednesday, I wrote about how useful I find the social-networking site Facebook for keeping in touch with both work and social contacts.

At this point, my colleague Eamonn Fitzgerald would tell me off for being so "industrial" in my thinking and making a distinction between work and leisure.

Anyway, I like Facebook, but, as I said, l accept that those who think it is a waste of time or dangerous will never be persuaded otherwise.

Interestingly, one of the arguments against social-networking sites is that the information that people upload could be damaging to their careers. This is a good example of the artificiality of the separation between work and play.

A recent survey of more than 2,600 hiring managers in the US by the website careerbuilder.com found that 45 per cent used social-networking sites to research job candidates. Facebook was the site used most often.

The top three examples of material that had caused managers not to hire a candidate were: "provocative or inappropriate photographs or information"; content about "drinking or using drugs"; and "badmouthing their previous co-workers or clients".

I don't upload any of this to Facebook (or other sites), nor do I make "discriminatory comments", lie about my qualifications or share "confidential information from a previous employer".

Well, actually that's not quite true. I did once make a disciminatory — or, at least, negative — comment about someone. Not on Facebook. But it is on the internet. And the comment was about myself.

Five years ago, I wrote that, maybe, I was a bit stupid. (Actually, "thick" was the word I used). It was in connection with needing 30 years to understand what a particular song title meant.

(For music aficionados, the song was "All the way from Memphis", and you can find my confession on this web page, along with a reply from the song's author, Ian Hunter.)

So now it's on the internet for good: "Ian McMaster says maybe he's a bit thick but...". I just hope a future employer won't hold that against me.