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Helen A.S. Popkin
To be fair, this Facebook photo features two Americans, one of which is me.
British Facebook users are under the influence of old demon alcohol in 76 percent of the photos in which they are tagged, according to a recent survey. More than half said they sure wouldn't want their employers or co-workers to see those photos. And yet, two-thirds of survey respondents said they'd intentionally tagged their "friends" in embarrassing photos to make sure other Facebook friends got a look.
So the big take away from this survey seems to be that three quarters of British Facebook users are lousy friends.
Live Poll
Do you have any drunk pics on Facebook?
Sure, only 8 percent of survey respondents said they'd been tagged in such photos on Facebook that might cause them to get in trouble with their employers or even lose their job. But nearly all survey participants (93 percent) said they'd actively untagged their names from photos they found "too embarrassing."
That's some pretty lax observance of the Golden Rule, IMHO.
It might really make me question the superfluous "u" spellings of our former rulers across the pond, if my own self-hating xenophobia didn't make me suspect that we Americans are way more obnoxious when it comes to blatant attempts to humiliate our closest compatriots via tagged photos on Facebook.
Alas, I just don't have the science to back that up.
The survey — conducted by photo website MyMemory.com — is restricted to British Facebook users, and only 1,781 of them at that. With such a humble polling pool, we are not even assured how accurately it applies to the more than 30 million Facebook users in the UK.
Such a survey does remind us however — especially during holiday party season when drunkenness has been known to occur — how it's important to remain vigilant about who's posting what about you on Facebook. Now, it used to be you didn't have much control over who tagged you in photos. Over the summer however, Facebook rolled out new privacy settings that allow you to approve who can tag photos of you, as well as who can see those photos.
More than 50 percent of the survey respondents said their settings allowed Facebook friends to view photos tagged with their name, and a quarter said their tagged photos were set to "Public." One in 10 however said they blocked their friends from seeing photos in which they are tagged.
You can change the "Public" default settings on tagged photos by clicking the drop down arrow at the top right of your Facebook page, choosing "Privacy Settings" and on that page, scroll down to "How Tags Work" and click "Edit Settings."
More on the annoying way we live now:
- You've got 7 days to approve Facebook Timeline
- FTC settlement aside, Facebook still owns your privacy
- Facebook's porn attack: Lawmaker wants answers
Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about privacy, then asks you to join her on Facebook and/or Twitter ... because that's how she rolls. Oh! Also, Google+.
Leave a Comment:
It's what Brits do! God bless 'em!
I'll drink to that!
their depress cos there empire is no more let them be.
Facebook is for fools. If the fool does not join Facebook then he never has to worry about what is on his Facebook page or when Mark is going to change the security settings.
Why"there are so many drunk Brits"on FacebookThere, fixed and answered!
The author definitely has a problem. This is not even worth writing about unless you are part of the drunks.
Nah, they're proving what I suspected all along. You have to be drunk to sign on to Facebook to begin with ;-).
Not so much drunk; just an idiot.
How fitting that it took one drunken Harvard student trying to get revenge on a girl to start this whole ball of wax rolling and now people being drunk are frequenting the site.
They drink because the weather is @!$%#e!
Also the Brits don't put the social stigma on drinking like Americans do. A lot of social interaction happens in the neighborhood pub which is treated like an extension of the living room (but you don't have to pick up the mess at the end of the night).
While heavy drinkers by American standards you don't see that completely stupid frat boy drinking -except at football games.
I find it hard to believe that any of this is the best use of the technology. I have to say that Al Gore came up with a pretty good idea and the thought that went into developing all the modern computer technology was a phenomenal achievement of human ingenuity.
To have about 99% percent of it dedicated to people having the ability to insult each other nonstop or find porn. while recording it all at the same time seems like a waste of time to have bothered. Not to mention the waste of fuel and electricity.
There has to be some more useful purpose for this technology than what people are using it for , although I'm sure people will probably be happy with gossip and porn until something else comes along
So, where DO you want your drunk Brits? Behind the wheel?
As long as they are in front of the camera that means they are safely off the road and avoiding call-in talk shows.
Remember that most Brits don't need to drive home after drinking. They either do it at the local pub (so they can walk home), or they can use public transport to get home. Most of the people I've met from the UK (whilst living in Europe) don't even have licenses to drive.
Thanks to modern technology, vanity and brainlessness, people can be behind the wheel and on Facebook at the same time.
Really makes one wonder....who the hell cares?
How is this news?
It's not. It's someone writing about things that stupid people like us will read and comment on; it's also someone trying to get in filler work at their job so they won't get their hours cut...
I don't drink and I don't Facebook. Therefor, there I shall never have to worry about untagging. Nothing up there for HR or interviewers to complain about. :)
Well.....
(All those pubs + Facebook) / Internetz = -100 IQ points
Scientific proof!
I can't believe I'm wasting my time on this. Who cares if they drink and take facebook pics. That's what British people do: social drinking. Oy vey how did I end up here??? And why are people wasting their time writing this?