Is not joining Facebook a sign you’re a psychopath? Some employers and psychologists say staying away from social media is ‘suspicious’

By: on 8.7.12
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Facebook has become such a pervasive force in modern society that increasing numbers of employers, and even some psychologists, believe people who aren’t on social networking sites are ‘suspicious.’ The German magazine Der Taggspiegel went so far as to point out that accused theater shooter James Holmes and Norwegian mass murder Anders Behring Breivik have common ground in their lack of Facebook profiles. On a more tangible level, Forbes.com reports that human resources departments across the country are becoming more wary of young job candidates who don’t use the site. Read the full story at The Daily Mail.

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Shelly Palmer

Shelly Palmer is Fox 5 New York's On-air Tech Expert (WNYW-TV) and the host of Fox Television's monthly show Shelly Palmer Digital Living. He also hosts United Stations Radio Network's, Shelly Palmer Digital Living Daily, a daily syndicated radio report that features insightful commentary and a unique insiders take on the biggest stories in technology, media, and entertainment. He is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group, LLC an industry-leading advisory and business development firm and a member of the Executive Committee of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (the organization that bestows the coveted Emmy® Awards).

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  • GW

    This is mostly nonsense, as there are many who don’t want to share everything about themselves online under ANY circumstances. My mother (who’s no psychopath, mind you) has no Facebook account and I know quite a few people who simply don’t use social networking sites because they don’t like the idea of other people poking into their lives for any number of reasons. I have two pages on the site (one personal, one for my blog) and I barely check in these days because it’s too much trouble on my lousy dial-up connection.

    Hell, in a way, these days Facebook is only a newer, shinier, more functional version of MySpace and when it ceases to be as popular as it is now, it’ll fall by the wayside just like that site has in terms of importance. I have an account there I haven’t accessed in years, but I’m not antisocial at all (well, not too much, but I’m not a psychopath either). With my stupid connection, I just hate constantly having to update, which also takes time away from my actual life offline.

    Finally, given how Facebook is used to fire people who speak too freely, pick them apart for personal flaws they expose, or in even worse cases, rob them blind because they’ve posted that they’re on vacation and have previously posted personal info and.or photos that gets thieves into their homes, why would anyone who values TRUE privacy want to expose themselves to that?

  • http://www.kccu.org/doug.html Doug Cole

    Over twenty years ago when I was spinning rock-and-roll discs at an AOR station, I received a summons. The court wanted me to give up the parental rights to my child.

    My Child?!? What Child?!?

    It seems that one of my listeners was an unfit mother. Her family was trying to get custody of the child away from her. When she was asked who the father was, my name basically came out of a hat.

    It was not my child!!!! Even the plaintiff’s attorney knew it wan’t my child, and told me that signing was just a formality so that the child could be placed in a proper home. I signed.

    So now, those of us who have been bitten by a modicum of fame are psychopaths for wanting to keep our private lives, private?!?
    Fine, I am now a psychopath, and I am OK with it.