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Comment by Jupe | Hacker News Reader

Ok, fair enough, but try and extend the pattern. What if the technical candidates don't have a Facebook account, a twitter account, a github account, or any other active online presence? Do you think such resume's will jump to the top of the decision pile? I highly doubt it.

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As someone who doesn't have Facebook, barely uses Twitter (zero tweets, I just use tweetdeck to follow some people), doesn't share his GitHub account with employers (just don't really care to) - my resume still jumps to the top of the pile based solely on the big names I've worked for in the past.

So - yes.

Sure, you're going to add more qualifiers now, but I'm giving a counterpoint to your original claim.

I don't use any of these web sites either, and it has not, to my knowledge, affected my career. Have worked in FAANG and non-FAANG companies, and my non-use of social media has never once been brought up.

I could easily add more qualifiers, but won't. I see the pattern and support my argument: The original poster is but one example. This company (fama.io) is in the business of performing exactly these types of social media background checks. (Reference: https://craft.co/fama/competitors)

As the masses (and I mean MASSES) of people buy into the social media explosion going on all over the planet, these "low-profile" individuals will A) become rarer, and B) start to look suspicious. Whether the sub-population of computer engineers see it for "what it is" or not; the general population apparently doesn't.

Example: I have a friend who, begrudgingly, created a Facebook account and used it rarely. Several months in, he started getting "friend" requests from (presumably) middle-eastern men, often shown with photos of AK-47s. If this is not a clear demonstration of a IS NULL business rule to figure out who might be anti-social, I don't know what it.

I stand by my prediction as well: Over time, a lack of an online presence (in a world where online presence is virtually required to live modern daily life) will be deemed "anti-social".

The lure (both ease and historical/digital facts) provided by scanning social media history will only grow in popularity.

I don't think it matters that much. My only online presence under my real name is a locked-down Facebook account and an inactive LinkedIn profile with no profile pic, and I get recruitment emails from big tech companies pretty often.

I mean, you can doubt all you want, but Zuck still has tape over his laptop camera. Negative signals may show up higher. But neither of us has any data to back anything up, just anecdotes.

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