I never fail to find it odd that, in an industry once notorious for people with introversion and and lack of social aptitude, vigorous participation in social media has now become all but compulsory. The mundanes really have taken over.

I have no Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or anything else, am.i that much of an outlier?

This depends on your age group and country of origin I would think. If you are between the age of 16 and 30 and in a western first world country, then yes - you would be an outlier. If you were 60 -70 years old from Mongolia, then no.

Although if celticninja is a 60-70yo from Mongolia, they are presumably an outlier for posting here.

Do you have a source that says that that stands out as a red flag? And in which countries?

As far as I know, only the USA has gone so far as to ask for social media accounts for some visas. (I might be out of date)

It's just my personal experience. I've had funny looks given to me when I say I'm not on facebook, and when I was off whatsapp for a brief while people refused to believe I had a smartphone but didn't use whatsapp.

E: I'm speaking more about job applications. The US Visa application requirement is of course already being litigated, and hopefully will soon not be a requirement any more.

Ah, so it's just a story you are telling yourself and us.

That makes a lot more sense!

I have literally been asked for Whatsapp and Facebook details on my job applications.

My mother's friend was told to give up her Facebook password for a job at the police station. She accepted the terms, for some reason. This was for an administrative-type job at a police station that did not involve police work or any kind.

So, yeah, it absolutely does happen and to different (sometimes frightening) degrees.

No one can give you a list of countries where this rule will apply tomorrow.

I had to provide them for a Chinese visa last year.

I suppose if people keep repeating this, then it might be a thing with a given group of people who keep repeating it to each other. In that case, good luck hiring people like me or that other person here who clearly thinks it's wrong to think like this.

I can assure you, our value over time exceeds that of dogmatic thinkers. That's because, by the time you believe something, it's no longer true and we know that to be a fact before you do because we don't buy into this story.

No it doesn't.

Most people are not on Twitter or Insta the only possible 'odd one' would be Facebook, and you can say you deleted your account a while ago.

That leaves not much.

Really? I've been at the same job since college and they just had my transcript, in-person interview, and drug test results. Social media doesn't come up in any interviews. Maybe HR searches for obvious red flags via Google, but not that I'm aware of. I don't work in software though. Is it really that common when applying for software positions?

It almost certainly depends on your location and the industry, plus your relative skill as well.