We’ve all read the stories of people being fired for a Facebook status exclaiming what a douche their boss was or how easy their job is or how they’re in fact at home playing video games instead of finishing a proposal etc etc,  but there are two recent ones that I think are incredibly unfair. Perhaps these unfair social media sackings reaffirm just how unfair this cruel world really can be. First Hollywood waiter Jon-Barret Ingels was stiffed by Hollywood actress Jane Adams who left to get her wallet from the car and never returned. After he tweeted about the incident he was then promptly fired after Adam’s Hollywood agency complained to the restaurant about the server’s righteous indignation. Wow- tough to make it in Hollywood even as a tweeting waiter.  A quick peruse of his tweets show that in fact he was a bit of a smarmy jerkoff who loved belittling the famous, so really it’s only partially cruel. First rule of social media- what happens in social media world doesn’t stay in social media world.

The one story that really gets the tears flowing involves a 23 year old Quebec woman, Nathalie Blanchard, who had been diagnosed with major depressive disorder in 2008 and was on sick leave to combat it. She recently lost her medical benefits from having a photo of her on Facebook where she appeared happy (a single brief moment in a maelstrom of anguish and misery). The medical insurer Manulife halted Blanchard’s insurance support and claimed they felt it was clear that she was ready to work based on a photos of her smiling at a Chippendales bar show and another while on vacation. Now don’t be so quick to condemn her for being a complete moron. It was recommended by her doctor that she take small vacations to “cleanse her mind of worries and reintegrate with friends in social settings” and I can attest that winter in Vancouver makes even the heartiest of us crave a sunny tropical beach if only for a week.  The Chippendales is what sent it over the edge in my opinion.

While Manulife has clearly demonstrated that they are heartless and cold racketeers who would rather see someone sick at home crying in a pillow taking pharmaceutical drugs than out trying to shake the funk they’ve fallen prey to, if Nathalie had followed a few simple social media precautions she may have avoided all of this in the first place.

Firstly, THINK before you post. Will this offend your mom? Will it offend that one person of a sexual persuasion or ethnic heritage that you forgot you friended? Will this make you look like an idiot? Or your employer like one?

Try to remember that EVERYONE sees what you do. Not just the handful of people who may find your status or clip or photo you post funny. And not just your friends- the friends of your friends too.

Know the Facebook privacy settings or privacy features of your own computer or the social media platforms you are using and set them accordingly. If you don’t want everyone seeing your stuff then make sure your settings are as private as you need them to be. Manulife may be lurking!

When you do those BS quizzes that tell you what fruit or city or  member of the A-Team you are, remember that the answers you give say something about you. Even if you’re joking around some might not realize that. You could end up being a B.A. Baracas when in fact you’re a Templeton “Faceman” Peck and there’s a BIG difference to some employers.

A few day ago a court battle between Facebook and Sanford Wallace concluded. The infamous Wallace, no stranger to being sued by social media platforms, is to pay Facebook $711 million dollars for “willfully violating the statutes in question with blatant disregard for the rights of Facebook and the thousands of Facebook users whose accounts were compromised by his conduct,” According to the Judge. The judge also ruled that because Wallace is a total douchebag that he would be serving prison time too. The Judge was not Judge Judy, just for the record. This is great news for the social media giant who are having a banner year. Facebook reports profits of $500 million this year, it’s the first time in the company’s existence that it has passed the break-even barrier having been in the negative for years now, despite incredible growth. But this is just one in a long and storied string of legal battles that the social media giant has claimed victoriously – some of which have had handsome rewards tied to them. Let’s have a brief stroll down memory lane and revisit some of them shall we:

-Earlier this year Facebook sued Power.com a Brazilian start-up that consolidated social media sites into a single platform where you could be simultaneously innundated by the pedantic details of everyone you know on several social media platforms.

-Adam Guerbuez and Atlantis Blue Capital of Montreal were sued by Facebook for $873 Million last November for their phishing scam targeting Facebook users. According to Facebook, Guerbuez fooled Facebook’s users into providing him with their usernames and passwords through the use of fake Web sites. He then used computer programs to send out more than 4 million messages promoting a variety of products, including marijuana and penis enlargement products. That’s so Montreal.

-July 2008 Facebook sues StudiVZ, what as at that point the largest social media site in the German speaking world. A world, which believe it or not, is made up of over 100,000,000 people. And you thought they just spoke funny English.

But it wouldn’t be fair not to mention that Facebook itself is also being sued. Phoenix Media of Boston is suing the company for violating a patent related to setting up profile pages. So maybe the reports of Facebook making a profit or becomming cash flow positive in the near future may be premature. As long as it keeps on successfully suing slimy crooks from Montreal to Munich, there will always be hope though.

So there you go, to sum up the social media environment behind the scenes, everyone is just suing everyone in a constant circle of infringing, blaming, copying, barely breaking even and getting violently prison spammed.