Imagine your excitement if you bagged an internship at your dream organisation. And then imagine how you would celebrity the victory. But you will definitely not have imagined losing the job because you lost control of yourself on Twitter.
A hopeful Nasa intern has lost the position before she even started after swearing at a member of Nasa’s space council on Twitter.
The story unravelled quickly for her. Twitter user Naomi H wrote, “Everyone shut the f*** up I got accepted for a Nasa internship.” When another user replied, “Language”, she responded: “Suck my d*** and balls I’m working at Nasa.”
It turned out that the person who reprimanded her for her language was Homer Hickam, a former Nasa engineer, and author who now works at the National Space Council, that oversees the space agency.
Image Credit: al
Naomi H has since made her tweets protected and changed her bio to: “Taking a break from Twitter for a while.” Hickam also deleted his tweets when the thread began to attract attention, as he claims to have not wanted to get her in trouble with Nasa.
Apparently, it was not this Twitter exchange that cost her the internship. It was because she hashtagged NASA while using the profane language.
While we have become used to Tweeting, posting and sharing everything that happens in our life, some scenarios require caution. Some of us post about a meal to a trip to major milestones. And while getting an internship at NASA is definitely post-worthy, Naomi’s case is a perfect example of How Not To Do It.
Twitterati has been divided over whether it was fair to deny Naomi her internship. But it cannot be denied that certain situations demand certain decency. Even Elon Musk had to apologise after calling one of the Thai cave rescue operators as ‘Pedo guy’ on Twitter.
It definitely means that even the limited 180 characters on Twitter come with responsibility. And though taken very lightly in the age of social media, minding your language is important.
