I did some dumb things in my college days. I'm sure we all did. But I'm grateful that any photographic proof of my shenanigans was long ago discarded. I just can't imagine what thousands of college-aged women are thinking to join a Facebook group dedicated to celebrating their drunken escapades.
Apparently 172,000 young women have joined a Facebook group named "Thirty Reasons Girls Should Call It A Night" and then gone on to post 5,000 photos. The photos celebrate their alcohol-fueled partying, dancing on tabletops, vomiting, public urination. You know this is a natural result of having a cellphone when you are drinking. I'm sure it seemed like a good idea at the time to take those photos.
Few of these women (girls? outright fools?) are thinking about the reputation effects from what they are doing. Forget the humiliation you might cause to your family. Can you imagine what a future boyfriend is likely to think? And worse, let's now put yourself in the shoes of a job interviewer when they do a Google and social networking search on the new candidate? And find these photos? The likely reaction won't be "oh kids will be kids" but "can this person be trusted to uphold our company's reputation?"
"You can't overstate how unthinking these kids are at 18, 19, 20 years old," said Robert L. Carothers, president of the University of Rhode Island, and a former member of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism's Committee on Campus Drinking. "They're not a thoughtful bunch, by and large."
Parents, please talk with your high-school and college-aged children about the dangers of these photos. No one should pay for a wild night of partying with their longterm reputations.