Alex Buscemi
Some people learn the hard way that the internet never forgets.
While social media can be great for networking and keeping up with friends, it’s also a minefield for career-ending mistakes.
One ill-advised tweet, an overshare on Facebook, or an unhinged rant in a public forum can unravel years of hard work in an instant.
People have taken to Reddit to share the most catastrophic social media fails they’ve witnessed—whether it was an employee getting caught badmouthing their boss, someone outing their own shady behavior, or a viral moment so bad it cost someone their entire career.
From corporate professionals to fast food workers, no job is safe when bad judgment meets the internet.
These stories are a cautionary tale about the dangers of hitting “post” without thinking.
If you’ve ever cringed at something you saw online, just wait until you read what these people managed to do to themselves.
1.
My grandmother was sending nudes to some guy on her phone and apparently accidentally posted it on Facebook. Everyone in our family saw the old cave, and I never wanted to be more blind in my life than in that moment.
2.
A coworker of mine came to work with a neck brace. She said she wasn’t going to be able to work for a while. A few days later, she posted a video of herself dancing at a party. Someone who didn’t like her told the company, and she was fired.
3.
I’m 67. Sitting in the hot tub naked, wearing a rain hat and drinking a beer. My wife comes to the door and snaps a pic… she is partially blind. I didn’t have the jets on.
Within 5 minutes, my 40-year-old son texts, “Hey, you can see Dad’s junk in that picture you just posted.” His wife had seen it. Facebook.
4.
Many years ago, a coworker of mine made a series of Livejournal posts that she thought were private, chronicling how she was cheating on her husband.
5.
Maybe not that bad, but my friend’s mom joined Facebook. She wanted to snoop on an old boyfriend of hers. She typed his name over and over in the search box… but it wasn’t the search box. It was the status update box.
We all saw his name repeated over and over on the feed. She then made another status update that was, “How do I delete this s**t?”
6.
Old friend of mine posted his girlfriend’s t**s on Facebook when trying to post a photo of his new quad. He titled it “Like my new toy?”
16 likes and one comment later, he realized what he had done.
7.
My ex thought she was posting in a private chat. She admitted to having a few affairs.
What’s really sad is all the support she got for it, and, of course, everyone said it was my fault.
Pretty much the only ones who criticized her and supported me over this were her two sisters.
8.
I sent a n**e to my friend so she could approve of it before I sent it off to a guy I liked.
Well, apparently, she was presenting in her college class and forgot to disconnect her phone from the projector before her whole class saw my n**e.
Good times.
9.
My father liked the local swingers’ group, not realizing that activity would be seen by EVERYONE.
Cue multiple calls to me by every single mutual friend… and he couldn’t figure out how to undo it, so we made a one-time deal that I would log into his account and do it for him and not look anywhere else.
(Not that I wanted to. I’d already made that mistake when trying to locate a blank CD at our house. It was not blank…).
10.
I ranted about my job and my dislike of my supervisor on MySpace. I worked for a political campaign at the time.
A blogger for the opposition party found it and put it on blast. I was emptying out my desk the next morning.
I deserved it, and leaving that field was for the better in my personal life, but it was one of the most embarrassing and humiliating moments of my life.
The thing spread around the office like wildfire, and seeing everyone watch me be escorted out remains burned into my brain.
11.
I had a friend who is a digital illustrator, she takes custom orders.
She logged into the wrong Insta and cross-posted some very detailed and, quite frankly, very well-done furry p**n to her FB wall.
I sent her a message within two minutes of her posting.
But that’s how I found out furry p**n is expensive, and you never know who does what to pay the bills.
12.
Maybe tamer than most on here, but I have a friend who only posts pictures of herself that are heavily photoshopped and/or have Snapchat filters that make her look “better.”
(Straightens her teeth, clears her skin, but makes her look like a CGI puppet.)
Every now and then, she accidentally uploads a genuine photo, and it’s shocking to see her *look like a real person.*
These photos typically get taken down soon after and replaced with a CGI version.
13.
I sent my b***s to my sister by mistake, followed by: “Does this look like a cancer growth to you?”
Trying to save face.
14.
Gather ’round, children, and let me tell you of the horrors of early Facebook.
Back in the late 00s, Facebook had a feature where you could send “gifts” to people that were really just a digital picture and spam.
Anyway, my dad didn’t realize that those would show to everyone on his friends list, and as he was in the process of leaving wife #2 for wife #3, I logged on one day to a wall of:
“[Dad] has sent a spanking to [wife 3]”
“[Dad] has sent a slave bikini Leia to [wife 3]”
“[Dad] has sent a sensual kiss to [wife 3]”I was already mad at him over the obvious affair, so this triggered us not speaking for several years.
15.
About 7-8 years ago, a married (to a woman) guy in Scotland tried to post a pic of his grandson on Facebook and accidentally uploaded two photos of himself topless with some guy’s d**k in his mouth.
He couldn’t work out how to delete it for ages and ended up claiming it was a “face swap.”
I always wondered if he got away with it or not.
16.
Someone posted something about loving JFK, and I went to post what I thought was a nice, normal GIF of JFK…
Not knowing that it was a GIF of the Zapruder film when he gets shot in the head but over and over again at a seizure-inducing speed.
17.
A girl I knew made an Instagram post on Remembrance Day (Canadian version of Memorial Day).
It said something like:
“Today I want to remember my amazing Grandfather and Opa. Both of them fought bravely in WW2, even though they were on different sides.”
The pictures were of her grandfathers in military dress, and the Opa was wearing a very… distinctive uniform.
I still wish I had screenshotted it, but it was gone when I returned.
18.
I thought Instagram was just a way to add cool filters to stuff, so I used it to make an artsy d**k pic I sent to my then-GF.
Account got suspended about 30 seconds later, and I realized what happened.
Thankfully, I didn’t have any followers on there at the time, but that was embarrassing, to say the least.
19.
My bio parents, who haven’t been together since before my birth, openly sexting on each other’s Facebook walls.
20.
My cousin, who was in his 50s, posted naked pics of his GF on Facebook dressed as an elf holding presents and candy canes.
21.
When Ed Balls tried to search his own name on Twitter but instead posted it to his feed.
Not the worst, but it did birth National Ed Balls Day, which is hilarious to me—April 28th.
22.
On Facebook, I belong to a close-knit group of women I’ve known for 20 years. We have a private group.
In a drunken rage at about midnight, I went to the group and posted a very long, detailed post about how I was tired of my husband never wanting to have s*x.
It had been YEARS, and I was over it. I laid it all out there—his junk didn’t work, I was fed up, everything.
About 3 minutes after I posted, a dear friend messaged me: “Not sure if you intended that post to be public… but it is.”
I deleted it immediately, but for about 5 minutes, all of our friends and family had access to the most intimate details of my non-s*x life.
He’s an ex now, and I’ve also quit drinking.
23.
Not a post, a comment.
Our former classmate’s baby was stillborn. She posted her trauma, and another person we went to school with commented:
“Congratulations! How is the baby doing now?”
I messaged that person and told them, “Hey, you misread that. Would you want to edit your comment?”
She replied that she was a social media expert and knows what she’s doing. The comment remained.
Lady posts a tribute every year, with the photo, and yes, that horrible comment reappears.
24.
Not sure if it technically counts as “social media,” but we got a new spindle sander at work (carpentry shop).
If you don’t know what that is, picture a dowel about an inch around and six inches tall with sandpaper around it, rotating very quickly while also moving up and down.
I took a video of it running with the caption, “Best seat in the house!” and sent it to what I thought was a WhatsApp group chat with my friends.
Shortly after posting, I realized it was, in fact, the group chat with the board members of my region’s chapter of an international college honors society.
I have never been so thankful that WhatsApp gives you the ability to delete a message.
25.
A girl I worked with made a Facebook post about a “nice hot bath,” but EVERYTHING was reflected in the tap.
26.
My buddy asked why Facebook and other websites kept posting p**n ads.
We had to tell him his ads are based on his viewing history.
27.
My little brother’s friend posted an album of his 1-year-old on Facebook.
In the middle of the album was a d**k pic—with his face.
28.
My Twitter and Facebook both got hacked a few years ago. I didn’t own a smartphone at the time, just a regular dumb phone.
I was about 4 hours from home and started getting text messages from people all over the place asking me why the f**k I was posting p**n all of a sudden.
Ended up having to call a trusted friend, give him my email password, and ask him to please take care of it.
Fun day.
29.
A girl I went to school with posted a picture on Facebook of her new tattoo, “Belive.”
It was up for about 15 minutes before someone pointed out the spelling mistake, and she deleted it.
How she or the “artist” didn’t notice is beyond me.
30.
Some of the worst things I’ve seen were not mistakes.
Just people sharing way too much information with the world about their family and relationships, and it’s so embarrassing.
A woman I know posted a long spiel on Facebook about how her husband cheated on her with her brother’s girlfriend.
They’re still together, and she’s since deleted the post—but everyone knows.
Read more: 30 Funniest Fails Of The Week Will Make You Involuntarily Slap Your Palm Against Your Forehead