Plastered Pictures: Completely Busted

Picture evidence is the worst kinda of evidence. Just ask a celebrity.

As a proud college drinker, my first Facebook album featured 44/60 pictures with alcohol in them. I felt it was necessary to my social life that everyone knew what sick parties I threw in my dorm room.

I put up pictures of the beer pong table, the beer can pyramid, empty handles of Everclear (don’t drink that stuff, seriously), and all the action shots of me and my friends using these things. The best college memories are of getting wasted with your friends, and it seems logical that the best Facebook pictures be the same.

This was legit back in 2006, but we’re in 2008 now. It’s a common occurrence for students to receive disciplinary sanctions for actions committed in their Facebook pictures. And we’ve all heard the horror stories of employers rejecting us based on our Facebook profiles. I wish it weren’t so, but the truth is that in the modern world, we have to be extremely careful of what we’re seen doing on camera.
Right now in London, a single person is caught on camera an average of 300 times a day. You can be sure that cities around America are planning on implementing similar surveillance plans too. In the world we’re building, people will be under surveillance almost constantly. Ok, so its not like you’re out getting wasted in the middle of the London street, you’re getting wasted in your dorm rooms or at parties, where there are no security cameras (yet).

But for now, almost every person has a camera (girls at least), and chances are you are in plenty of pictures that find their way online, some you don’t even know about. Looking through photos of this girl I hooked up with last year, I found myself in a photo with her months before we met, tagged as “towel boy”. So, I’ve got some advice on how to keep out of trouble while you do your drinking.

Don’t Drink on Camera
Really, the best way to avoid pictures of you drinking on Facebook is to not be in those pictures in the first place. When I’m at a party and someone wants to take a picture, instead of going with my first instinct and toasting the camera, I put my drink down or out of frame. And don’t think that the excuse “no one can see what’s in my red solo cup” is gonna fly anymore: we all know its alcoholic.

So as much as you want to have a picture proving your awesomeness as you do that kegstand or shotgun that beer, try to avoid it. And remember, even if you’re 21, drinking in a lot of situations still violates university policy, and they’ll get you for that. Even worse, it makes you look like a person of low moral character, and employers will judge you, dumb as it is.

Untag Liberally
You’re right, sometimes there’s nothing you can do, you end up in that picture double fisting 40’s and making out with someone you don’t know, but who’s definitely not your girlfriend. Yes it’s an epic picture, and you should probably make a mental note of where it exists so you can find it later, but untag that right now. Setting your profile to “private” so only your friends can see it isn’t enough. The university and employers will find your photos somehow.

If a photo is untagged, unless it’s in your album, it’s much harder to trace to you. Take a couple minutes one day soon and go through your own albums and take down pictures of you drinking or doing anything illegal or against university policy. And then untag other people’s photos of the same nature. It kind of sucks, because these are a lot of the best pictures of you, but it’ll be worth it in the long run.

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