Being on Facebook as a resident

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BobA said:
In general, how do people feel about being on facebook as a resident? How much information do you display?
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I just emailed a friend about this.

I think a lot has to do with access to your photos, and the groups you have joined, and your status updates.

IMHO, err on the side of caution and dont put your status updates as "I f***ing hate my co-interns/upper level/attendings" or something like that. Or even "Went out last night with the gals...woo! I dont know who is the father of my child" (you get the message). I may be presumptous, but it is hard to ignore these things in someone who is going to be your co-intern.

Also your photos say a lot about you....I have seen some friends having photos of them peeing on the roadside and stuff....not cool, man.

To err on the side of caution, I have heard of many people making separate sub-groups on facebook in their friend list, so certain professional colleagues can have restricted access (to photos, status updates,etc).
 
resctricted access is a must, but its hard to do when other people are posting weird things on your wall, unless you have that restricted as well, but then fb without a wall is pointless imo.

i think if you keep it clean its no issue at all.
 
Don't put anything in your profile that you'd feel uncomfortable discussing with the PD. It may be prudent to santize your profile before you start residency, etc. if you've had it a while, particularly if there may be questionable activities on there.
 
There was a great article recently in the NYT about this issue, written by a resident at NYP-Columbia. I think the easiest is to deny using the website or feigning ignorance, that way when people add you, you can hold off for months to years on their friend request. Increase privacy settings to highest possible settings. Obviously de-tag every photo that isn't flattering, or practice primary prevention at any cost + refuse to be photographed when under the influence.
 
Speculatrix said:
There was a great article recently in the NYT about this issue, written by a resident at NYP-Columbia. I think the easiest is to deny using the website or feigning ignorance, that way when people add you, you can hold off for months to years on their friend request. Increase privacy settings to highest possible settings. Obviously de-tag every photo that isn't flattering, or practice primary prevention at any cost + refuse to be photographed when under the influence.
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An interesting thing I have noticed - when you add someone, if they do not have enough privacy restrictions, you can actually see them changing their status updates and also be-friending other people. In that case, it becomes quite insulting. I think it also has something to do with the fact that if you have a common friend, you can see a part/entire of their photo album even if they havent confirmed you as a friend.

So as Speculatrix said, work on those privacy restrictions first.
 
I just deactivated facebook recently while I took time to finish certain outstanding things in my studies before starting intern year, and wow, it's been great. I don't have to worry about sanitizing things on my wall, etc. I actually don't know what to do with the time I've recovered. If this keeps up, I will have no desire to rejoin. Plus with the latest FB fiasco of showing email addresses to everyone, I'm not too keen on their privacy. I'd already erased everything about myself in the bio sections before interview season began just in case a PD got in via a friend's account at another school (yes, I know that's somewhat paranoid thinking) and moreover, didn't want FB's corporate partners to know what my favorite movies, books, etc., were. It was fun using it while it lasted for me (I was on it shortly after it launched), but I'd prefer to get to know my fellow residents in person rather than looking at their pages on FB.
 
it's always funny how people sanitize the real them for this career. putting on the false facade during interviews to get into med school, during clinical rotations, then for residency interviews, and now this. not that i'm blaming. you almost do have to pretend to be the undifferentiated robot like every other premed/med student/resident out of a mixture of fear and conformity to be allowed to move up the hierarchy. then when you do "make it" and finally have some power/authority you can turn around and be the cool, badass attending who was always "real" and didn't care what anybody thought of him/her. fake it til u make it as they say.
 
PostCall said:
it's always funny how people sanitize the real them for this career. putting on the false facade during interviews to get into med school, during clinical rotations, then for residency interviews, and now this. not that i'm blaming. you almost do have to pretend to be the undifferentiated robot like every other premed/med student/resident out of a mixture of fear and conformity to be allowed to move up the hierarchy. then when you do "make it" and finally have some power/authority you can turn around and be the cool, badass attending who was always "real" and didn't care what anybody thought of him/her. fake it til u make it as they say.
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👍
 
PostCall said:
it's always funny how people sanitize the real them for this career. putting on the false facade during interviews to get into med school, during clinical rotations, then for residency interviews, and now this. not that i'm blaming. you almost do have to pretend to be the undifferentiated robot like every other premed/med student/resident out of a mixture of fear and conformity to be allowed to move up the hierarchy. then when you do "make it" and finally have some power/authority you can turn around and be the cool, badass attending who was always "real" and didn't care what anybody thought of him/her. fake it til u make it as they say.
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I think you're making it a bit too simplistic. People are multi-dimensional and so are their personalities. You're always the same inside but your behavior and social interaction changes depending on the environment. It's normal for people to be formal and guarded at first.. I know I'd be freaked out if I met someone and they poured out all their weird eccentric behaviors at once.

I do agree with you on the part about being fake. Some people compromise their unique personalities to either mimic or fake their way into gaining the acceptance of others. But that usually doesn't last too long. I think people are just concerned with strangers knowing too much about them too fast. When it comes to their career, it can have significant consequences because .. well it's their career. Who wants their boss to know all about their personal life before a professional relationship has even been established? That being said, what the hell is facebook?
 
I don't see how it's any different than in any other job. Realize the search engines can find anything you post (unless you implement security measures)

Be very careful posting anything patient related. No photos of penis with "HOT ROD tattoo (as an example) either.

Your boss (in this case your PD, or department chair) can probably find anything you put on there if they want to bad enough (as can any boss). People have been not hired or fired because of facebook posts (twitter too!)

Use common sense.
 
highest privacy settings

post nothing about patients at all

don't friend anyone from work. period. i've had a couple of friend requests from people at work. they're cool guys and i couldn't care less if they saw what I have up. but they're also friends with practically everyone in the department and i don't want to open up that floodgate. I tell people at work that nothing personal, but it's a matter of policy that I do not friend people from work ever.
 
I'm going to bump this for additional thoughts. It's 5 years later. FB has changed. It's privacy policy also has changed! The world has changed in 5 years, especially in terms of the Internet.

I find most of my friends (attendings and residents) are still quite visible on FB. Unless they've gone through all the work of the filters.

I really want to deactivate, but I also use FB to stay in contact w/ my relatives in other countries.

Also, do you think some of your patients look you up? Do you change your name to something more hard to search for? Not care? I'm actually fairly "sanitized" w/ my FB stuff. Unless you like my constant sports team talk, random "food porn" photos, you don't get too much about me on FB.
 
Gfliptastic said:
Also, do you think some of your patients look you up? Do you change your name to something more hard to search for? Not care? I'm actually fairly "sanitized" w/ my FB stuff. Unless you like my constant sports team talk, random "food porn" photos, you don't get too much about me on FB.
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I *know* they do because I get a few FB friend requests a year from patients.

My profile doesn't show much detail to the outside world so never figured that I needed to hide my name/picture but I can understand not trusting FB security settings and doing so. I tell patients that we have a practice FB page if they would like to "like" that but that I keep my persona FB page for my own friends and family. Never had a problem with that.
 
I was concerned about this until I saw some of the photos/status updates some attendings themselves put up on FB ... 😵

@Gfliptastic This Sunday, the title is ours .....
 
I think th ebiggest issues is that, as healthcare professionals, we should be professional and not be engaging in any behavior that is unprofessional or may call our moral ethics into question. Please dress appropriately, socialize appropriately, and do things within moderation, then no one should have any mindfullness as to what you post on your twitter or facebook accounts. Live the example you preach to your patients. I am not saying to confine yourself to becoming a nun, but there is no need for you to spend all of your free time at the bar trying to pick up potential dates while you are half naked.

On the other hand, I think it is awful if some people have to hide their sexual orientation, dietary preferences, religious preferences, political preferences because of what some program director may think. That is unfair.

My point is to be the type of physician you would want your loved ones to be treated by. Have that mindset and that code of ethics.
 
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