De-Tagged Does Not Mean Erased

April 11, 2009 3:00 pm     Posted in Reality  Erica- University of Michigan g+ page

drunkThough we’ve all heard that there are future employers, spouses, and murderers who are going to look us up on Facebook to stalk our past indiscretions, how many of us can truly say that our Facebooks are rated PG? While I remember myself painstakingly deleting every picture with the slightest reference of alcohol before I entered college, once I arrived at Michigan, it seemed that every person I knew was tagged in some sort of waterfall or beer pong picture. Slowly, I stopped being so anxious about what went up in my albums; a shot glass here, a beer bottle there, etc. Sure, I still de-tagged pictures of myself chugging bottles or double-fisting shots, but it never occurred to me that the mere mention of alcohol in an album would hurt my good name.


By Erica

However, a couple of weeks ago I was presented with a problem when the advisor of my sorority came to me with pictures of me and my fellow sisters drinking in the house. While it is pretty easy to deny that you break the rules, it is hard to do so when you are presented with a picture of yourself mid-Smirnoff shot in your own room.

Though none of the pictures came from my own albums, I still found myself staring at my own face. These were pictures that were DE-TAGGED. Pictures that I had known were inappropriate, and had clicked the little button next to my name, the one that makes everything bad go away. I suppose when we all look at the pictures tagged of us and don’t see one, we forget that, despite not having our name, it still exists. Albums from August with pictures that I had forgotten existed were shown to me. While my first thought was, “Wow, this person needs a life if she is stalking pictures of me from 6 months ago,” my second one was “Well. This isn’t pretty.”

To steal one of the most worthwhile things my father has ever said to me, it wasn’t that our parents didn’t do stupid or illegal things when they were younger. They just never had to worry that within 24 hours, this illegal activity would be popping up on mini-feeds all over the country. While my experience with adults and Facebook has luckily left me with minimal scars, this was my first warning to how technology-savvy bosses can check in on their future employers. My advisor used a girl in my house to spy on us. Large companies have greater access, more resources, and more reasons to background check their employees’ backgrounds. Would you really want someone who advertises pictures of themselves passed out drunk or in a cloud of smoke in your law firm every day?

So here is the warning: Delete Delete Delete. Do not de-tag. And if you are like me and still want everyone to be able to see your pictures, discover snapfish.com. You can e-mail your friends and family your albums and, since it is a website, you are safe in case your computer ever crashes and you lose everything. While I love the ease and access Facebook allows, having my friends view pictures of us holding vodka in one hand and rum in the other aren’t worth me being punished again.

[Photo courtesy of Asurroca on Flickr.]

24 Comments on "De-Tagged Does Not Mean Erased"

  1. nikki says:
    Sat, 11th Apr 200910:41 am 

    I'm always wondering what the best way to ask people to erase certain pictures would be.

  2. bittersweetx333 says:
    Sat, 11th Apr 200910:43 am 

    That is so true.

    You can't help it when your friends start tagging and won't delete the pictures!! It is kind of out of hand.

    I feel bad for some social butterflies who have been tagged in over 1000 pictures.

  3. Sam says:
    Sat, 11th Apr 200911:40 am 

    The easiest thing to do is not have pictures taken of you drinking/taking shots etc. While there are pictures of me with bottles in the background, I try to not have pictures taken of me drink in hand.

  4. Emily says:
    Sat, 11th Apr 200911:52 am 

    The rule with my friends is if there is an incriminating situation, there are no cameras. Plain and simple.

  5. Casey says:
    Sat, 11th Apr 20094:13 pm 

    You could, if the photo allows, ask the person who has the rights to the picture to crop you out of it. Just explain that it could put your future in jeopardy and you don't want to ask them to remove the picture but blur your face, crop you out, draw something over you (sometimes that even makes the picture funnier) etc. Or you could do as Sam says, but I know when you're inebriated it's hard to keep track of whether or not pictures are being taken.

  6. Tori says:
    Sat, 11th Apr 20095:55 pm 

    Ditto Casey. I've only had that issue with one picture, but the person who posted it was a good friend and he was more than happy to crop me out of it.

  7. manda says:
    Sat, 11th Apr 20097:59 pm 

    we've all had this problem. i'm pretty sure 30 years from now, when we're all running for elected offices, school boards, or god knows what…these will come up and people will brush them off because literally almost NO ONE will be able to say a picture of them doing something incriminating isn't somewhere in cyber space.

    secondly, i think that honestly, employers want to know that you have a social life. unless your trying for divinity school, innocent shots of you looking sober but still taking a shot with a group of friends or playing a friendly game of beer pong will let your employers know you aren't some awkward nerd with no social skills. i mean it shouldn't be every picture on your facebook, but a few here and there inter-spliced with your pictures of europe and girls night are going to make you look more like a well rounded individual than a drunk.

  8. Christina says:
    Tue, 14th Apr 20093:11 pm 

    I've got to agree with Manda.

    I've got no egregious pics up on facebook, but at over 1000 tagged pictures, it's more than likely I've got some out there that I was never tagged in. I mean, I figure there's usually no pics where it's ridiculous but at the same time it's hard to take down pictures that are not your own.

  9. sara says:
    Fri, 17th Apr 20099:04 am 

    Ah! This is really scary!!!! Because now that I think back to all those pictures I de-tagged myself in… I don't know who put them up or what albums, I don't remember anymore!! I'll have to go look for some and ask for them to be deleted.

    Also if you are tagged in an album, GO THROUGH THE WHOLE ALBUM. my friends seem to have a very bad habit of not tagging all the pictures, just tagging me once and letting me tag the rest. some of my friends even 'censor-tag' and don't tag bad pictures of me… so i might not even realize they are up!!

  10. c says:
    Sat, 18th Apr 200910:01 am 

    Ya that sounds great and all, but what about when your not the one putting the pictures up? Facebook won't take down other people's pictures if your in them and ask. There seem to be lots of people around who don't care that much about privacy or respect… What are really the options then?

  11. James says:
    Sat, 18th Apr 20092:30 pm 

    I make a point of not being photographed with alcohol in my hand, even if it's a harmless glass of wine in a friendly local pub. As for the drunken hijinks, I'm not cool enough to get into those kinds of situations ;)

  12. K - GW says:
    Wed, 22nd Apr 20096:33 am 

    good article, i should probably start 'deleting' asap

  13. sauer kraut says:
    Mon, 11th May 20096:01 am 

    … hell, the alcohol is the least of the worry.

    what about the belly ring, tats, padded pink bra, etc? those old white dudes/dudettes who do the hiring circular file peeps with all that.

  14. anona says:
    Sun, 20th Feb 20116:33 am 

    While you can delete the photos that you posted, what do you do with the pics that someone else at the party posted to the web? Insitgate a "NO Cameras or recording devices allowed" policy? Or do you heed the age-old advice of "Don't do anything that you wouldn't want posted on the evening news"?

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