Facebook (and similar) Users: Is it rude to not have a photo of oneself?

[Venus193]

I don't use Facebook for all the reasons mentioned in the other recent FB thread.  I do have a LinkedIn account because this site is popular with advertising professionals.  Every time I go there it tells me I should post a photo; most people have photos on their social network sites.  I probably brought this up before but don't remember the answer and by now people's answers to this might be different.

A lot of universities demand that photos be submitted with applications.  I think this is done primarily for security reasons.  While this is legitimate I have to think that people checking out other people on social media sites is done specifically to check for any negative thing that would identify that person as undesirable as an employee or whatever. 

Since I am neither 25 nor pretty I don't think it would benefit me to post a photo of myself, especially since I'm looking for a job.  I don't want to give any potential employers the chance to exclude me pre-emptorially due to ageism or looksism.  I haven't worried about this until now, but when I saw my new passport photos I wanted to commit seppuku. 

What would you do in my place?

[Sharnita]

for jobs I don't know.  For facebook I wouldn't call it rude but I do think photos can be useful.  If I am looking for my friend Sue Baker a photo might allow me to figure out which of the 27 Sue Bakers is my Sue Baker.

[Thriving ~ the next adventure]

Since I am neither 25 nor pretty I don't think it would benefit me to post a photo of myself, especially since I'm looking for a job

Venus, I suspect you are being very hard on yourself....you should see my D/L photo!

[gollymolly2]

Yeah, not rude not to post a picture, but pictures can be very helpful for an assortment of reasons. I'm sure some people go to linkedin and disqualify people who are "not attractive enough," but I'm sure at least as many people are just trying to make sure they're identifying the right Sue Baker, as Sharnita put it, or just wanting to put a face to the name.

As an aside, I applied for ~15 universities in 2002, ~10 law schools in 2008, and ~20 jobs in 2009, and none of them asked for pictures. In my experience, many sophisticated employers prefer not to have pictures of applicants because it increases the possibility that somebody can sue for race discrimination, etc.

[Shoo]

If I were a job applicant, I would not make my FB profile accessible to everyone.  It would be extremely limited, thus no potential employers would be able to see it.  There are ways to keep it from coming up in searches, both on Google and on FB itself. 

Having a FB page with or without pictures doesn't mean potential employers get to see it.

[Deetee]

I don't think it's rude to not have a photo on linked-in, but it would be better professionally to have one. People relate much better if a picture is there. It makes you recognisable.

[Venus193]

A few people I know professionally have made their LinkedIn accounts private in the sense that they can't be Networked.  Some of them don't have photos up.

Since I don't have FB I'm not worried about anyone finding any postings at which they can take (or invent) offense.   I don't want to have to deal with remembering privacy settings for a site that would have my real name.

[sammycat]

I have no idea what Linked In is, so I can't comment on that. 

I do have a FB account though (for better or worse ).  I don't think it's rude not to have a photo up. 

I don't have a photo of myself on my profile, for privacy reasons.  I was surprised to discover only 2 other people with my name (and they both included middle names as well so that also makes it easier to discount them as me).  I have my privacy settings set very high so my name doesn't come up on a general search anyway, but I really don't want anyone other than my actual friends to be able to see me. I have blocked certain people but if for some reason they were able to find me, I don't want them having any insight into my life, and that includes even a tiny little FB photo. 

I really, really hate the fact now that the lowest FB setting for people seeing my name is 'friends of friends' rather than just 'friends'.

[Dogface]

Hmmmm, I don't know about LinkedIn or anything professional, so I can't help you with that.

I don't post photos of myself on Facebook, although I have had friends post photos of me. I also keep my privacy settings pretty tight, so it's unlikely that any potential employers would be able to access it (not that I have any photos of me that would hurt my chances at employment or anything anyway). I also have a Flickr account that anyone can access. I have a lot of photos on it, although it's mostly photos of stuff and not photos of people. The only photos I have of me up there are of my hand coming into the frame (holding something, feeding an animal at a petting zoo), an incidental reflection of me with my face obscured, and me at a fencing tournament with my mask on. I don't have my real name attached to it and I don't put anything on there that I wouldn't mind an employer, potential employer, or potential school seeing if they did figure out it was me.

[Venus193]

I don't need to worry about there being even another Venus193; my last name is not even in any NYC phone directory and my real first name is not terribly common.

But it is not good that FB settings allow "friends of friends" to get to you even if you defriend them.  

[Roe]

Regarding photos on FB.  I don't think it's necessarily rude but I do not accept friend request from people if they don't have a picture of themselves. 

Many high school friends send me requests and many times, I might barely recall the name but unless I can see their pic and confirm for sure that I know them, I don't accept their friend request.

[Nanny Ogg]

For linked in, I'd either use a nice photo where I'm smartly dressed (blouse/suit/dress) or a professional photo. 

Its not rude to not have one, but I think a profile looks less "complete" without one.

On facebook it is not rude to omit photos, but as photo sharing is one of the main features of the site, it may be a little strange to remain a ? for a long time...

[ShyViolet]

It's not at all rude not to have a picture.  In terms of LinkedIn I think you've got the right idea with keeping your photo *off* the site - I'd never want to give any cause for an -ism to surface and affect a potential job opportunity!

In terms of facebook style sites, is there something you could use as your picture that isn't a regular picture?  I'm extremely private and hate the idea of plastering my face onto the internet, but at the same time I realise it helps people to give them a visual.  So I've got a photo of my hair only - it's distinctively coloured - that is more than enough for the real people I know to identify with, and also provides only a glimpse to those who've never met me face to face.

Heck, even a favourite flower/object/place/etc should be enough to add some kind of flavour to a purely social profile.

[Venus193]

OK; that sounds good.  I think this will be the picture:



As I recall, even here someone posted to ask me what they were.

[Amava]

Those are super adorable, are they fennec foxes?