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Countless people, the rich and famous as well as the rest of us, have had their reputations ruined by something they once said or did online. Now, chances are we jumped on the #cancel bandwagon, but none of us have spotless pasts. Especially since we’ve been using the internet since we were way too young to know better.
While you’re not going to go viral for an old tweet unless you have a big following, these things could still destroy your chances of getting jobs and make people think twice about dating you.
First off, look for the best background check to find out what’s out there about yourself. You can also use these background checks to find out more information about someone you don’t necessarily trust, especially if you’re going to have to meet them alone.
Once you’ve seen what your background check brings up, make sure you do the following.
Go through your old tweets
You might have sent thousands of tweets in your life, and most of them probably don’t matter. It may take you hours to go through your tweets checking if you said anything problematic. But you should do it anyway. There are always people willing to go through someone else’s Twitter history to find something that compromises them. A tweet from when you were fifteen shouldn’t destroy your reputation, but when presented with no context, people will make assumptions about you.
Reverse search your photos
There are probably plenty of embarrassing photos of you online. Most of them are just instances when you wore something that seemed cool at the time. But in our day, you’ve probably put some more compromising photos out there.
You might have whole social media accounts under different names, or have profiles on dating apps that use a pseudonym. If anyone comes across them, they won’t be able to track you. However, you could end up getting yourself into a sticky situation. If you post a #tbt photo that appears on one of these profiles, even if it’s a personal photo that’s not actually of you, a reverse image search could bring up what you thought was long gone.
Before posting any old photos under your name, do a reverse image search to find out if you’ve ever used them in a compromising setting.
Delete old accounts
We live in an age in which everything is recorded in some way. We have the receipts for just about anything we’ve ever said or done. Just ask James Charles and Tati Westbrook, or Shane Dawson, Kevin Hart, and so many others.
We keep these things for sentimental reasons. Part of us feels like we’re losing something if we delete the archives. But if you can delete an old account, do so. You’re not going to miss it. Not only might it have compromising content that you were once willing to share, but if it gets hacked, information that’s actually important could get stolen. Even if there’s nothing important there, you may have used a password you’re still using for active accounts.
Be careful with your online presence. It’s not too difficult to stay out of trouble if you’re smart about it.
