When putting my foot into the professional world, where the gatekeepers frown on the freak flags people fly on their MySpace, Facebook, and Friendster pages, I deleted mine.

As an artist, I wasn’t sure the wierdness would be understood. As a discontent, I couldn’t be associated with some of my drunken ramblings. And there was the worry that, even if my postings weren’t unpalatable, my friends may have been. Why risk guilt by association for the virtual company I keep?

Employers search for your name on these sites. If they see a photo of you drunk with a lampshade on your head, you’re not getting the job. I’ve heard news stories about people losing their jobs over the things they’ve posted.

We put our private lives in the largest, most accessible library ever. Those private lives might not reflect on job performance, yet now that employers have access to them, they use them to filter out those who may actually be great employees. It takes the fun out of these sites, where wierdness can become a competition. You have to be like a painting in a hotel room — somewhat interresting, but completely unoffensive to anyone who sees it.

For those of you who have found this post in the tangled vastness of the web — if you’ve ever lost a job because of your MySpace page, please post your story here. Or, if you’re an employer who uses these pages in consideration of hiring applicants, how does this help you? Do you have your own stories about how this helped you avoid trouble or get rid of troublesome employees?