The Favreau Effect - AKA, the Dangerous Side of Social Media

While social media in politics reached historic heights this election year, don’t expect speechwriter Jon FavreauJon Favreau to be singing its praises anytime soon. Favreau, 27, was expected to be White House Director of Speechwriting for President-elect Barack ObamaBarack Obama, but a recent photo posted to his Facebook account, showing him fondling a life-size cutout of Secretary of State nominee Hillary ClintonHillary Clinton, may end the young writer's dreams of Whilte House fame.

Favreau's photos from a party he attended while chief speechwriter for Obama’s presidential election campaign were posted to Facebook; according to a CNN.com report, the photos were up for only a couple of hours before he pulled them from his profile page, but by then the damage had already been done.

The moral of the story - discretion in a digital age is especially significant when, in just hours, one photo, one quote, or just one article, can cause irreparable damage and harm to reputations and future prospects.

Although this event is obviously significant from a social media standpoint, what has not been recognized yet is that this type of insensitivity happens all the time; people do, say, and behave in stupid ways and in this case, the behavior should not be tolerated for any reason.

In today’s world, all it takes is two hours to ruin a lifetime of work and effort. Most interesting though is that behaviors haven’t changed for the better - just the medium of exposing those who behave in stupid, sexist, degrading, and wildly tasteless ways. Perhaps this event will go down in political history as the “Favreau effect” - what not to do right before you start a job with a new presidential administration.

What do you think of Favreau's future as a result of this stunt? Should he be allowed to retain his appointment as Director of Speechwiting for the Obama White House? You can also take the poll, Should Favreau be allowed to keep his position as White House Speechwriter after having posted photos of himself fondling a Hillary cut-out?.

Cross posted from Online Business Woman blog.