To ask for your opinion to this answer in an interview re SM

[Wantt]

Job / role is not related directly to SM.

Interviewer ‘I notice you don’t seem to have much of a social media presence, can you tell me a bit more about that?’

interviewee ‘I recognise the power of social media from a business perspective but find it inappropriate on a personal level at best, dangerous at worst, I therefore do not engage with social media platforms as an individual’.

Is this a good answer or red flag?

It sounds a bit....absolutist and TBH pompous to me. I mean, I don't use X or FB but SM is brilliant for engaging with people who have the same interests as you - hobby groups, reading groups, niche interest groups (I was reading about the 14th century crusades in Lithuania on a blog the other day). I think it's possible to have a positive SM presence without engaging with the toxicity of some sites.

I wouldn't find it odd you don't use SM but it's a weird way to say it.

I'd probably ask you what was not appropriate about it on a personal level. Not all SM is sordid and dangerous.

“I understand the power of social media from a business perspective, but choose to keep personal interactions to a minimum.”

I think it's a bit pompous and over explaining something that's quite simple. A lot of people don't like social media and therefore don't use it.

I would find it a red flag if was the one being interviewed though. The job doesn't involve social media so why would the employer care.

I think you went a bit far with "dangerous". I would have stopped earlier in the paragraph.

I’ve conducted 100’s of interviews and I’ve never asked about a persons SM usage. Every company I’ve worked for has its own SM policy so I’d not feel the need to ask. That may be different if I was recruiting for a marketing or similar role. I can’t think of any reason I or the company I was interviewing for would care about limited SM presence. I would find that response odd though, sounds very up your own arse,
a simple I don’t use for personal use would have done the job.

I also think this is a bit absolutist.

It is fine not to engage with SM personally - FWIW many computer scientists and others in IT are very selective with SM for themselves and their families. But I prefer the tone of some of the replies above.

I actually don’t think it is any of an employer’s business whether a potential or actual employee uses personal SM, unless the employee elides the personal and the professional. But that is a completely different question to this one.

'It's just something I'm not interested in'.

Don't see any need for more than that, it's not compulsory.

Is this a young person's answer (by that I mean young adult, say early 20s)?

I ask because social media being 'dangerous' is a not-unusual view among this demographic and so it depends on the ages of the interaction as to how a view like this might land. So I agree with pp. Better to be neutral.

(However, if it was said to you by an interviewee, I would probably respect that answer, tbh!)

It’s incredibly judgemental. Chances are at least some of the panel use it personally and you’ve just called them inappropriate or dangerous!!!

It would be a red flag for me, as an interviewer, that you felt the need to inform me that having a personal social media account is unequivocally ‘inappropriate and dangerous’ because it simply shows that you’re prepared to pontificate to others on a subject you clearly don’t know very much about. I’d want to hear an answer like “I certainly see the value of social media from a business perspective and for networking, but on a personal level I just prefer to keep in touch with people in a more private way and I’d rather a social media company didn’t have ownership of my personal data. Obviously for some people social media does enrich their lives and helps them feel connected to others, but for me I’d rather make a conscious effort to maintain friendships without it and I’ve found that works for me”. Essentially, I’d want to know that the candidate had a measured and proportionate attitude, that appreciated the nuances of the subject and the breadth of opinion out there, rather a rigid and extreme one.

Of course, if the job you’re applying for is one where a social media presence be a security risk or open you up to scrutiny that would reflect on your employer, then you could talk about that (eg in some jobs it’s important that you’re seen to be politically neutral and a Twitter conversation about your voting intention 10 years ago could be a problem; or in some jobs you might be at genuine risk from stalking or recriminations from clients etc.)

It means the company has tried to vet the applicant online and failed.

all the more reason to keep SM to a minimum tbh

It sounds like an answer from someone who is extremely full of their own self-importance.

So easy to say ‘I’ve never been very interested in it to be honest - I find it useful for keeping in touch with old distant friends but I’ve never used it for more than that’.

“Inappropriate at best” is such an odd and judgemental answer. I presume you were the interviewer, OP, since you’re here posting on mumsnet!

When I did GDPR training a few years back, I was told you couldn't consider someone's social media presence in your recruitment decision. In reality, it's a different story, but probably not a wise interview question.

They didn't suggest it? Should we infer that your comedy AI company didn't pay you to post either?

Idiot.