CNET has a great story about a waiter in Beverly Hills who was actually tweeting about his experiences with famous people whom he served.
His name is Jon-Barrett Ingels, and his Twitter profile is @PapaBarrett
Well, one day in walks Jane Adams – the star of “Hung” on HBO – into the restaurant that Ingels was working at.
And apparently after she’d had her lunch, or whatever, she walked out of the restaurant without paying for the bill. The next day, her agent came in an paid the bill, but didn’t leave a tip.
So Jon-Barrett Ingels decided to tweet about the experience (read the tweet here) – and here’s what it said:
“Tues: Jane Adams, star of HBO series “Hung,” skipped out on a $13.44 check. Her agent called and payed the following day. NO TIP!!!”
So the end result in making the decision to tweet about the episode was this – Ingels got fired!
I share this story because Twitter is showing itself to be a powerful tool for information and collaboration, but it’s also a very dangerous tool because, like every other aspect of life, there are consequences to your actions.
This same thing is playing out in sports – both college and at the professional level. You can say what you want because of the First Amendment, but you ultimately have to realize that there are consequences to your actions – period.
And Twitter creates a very dangerous platform for people to suddently be caught by saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.