The Joy of Sharing
People take pictures and videos of great moments and funny events so that they can share the memories with friends and look back on them later. With the internet and social media networking it is now possible to share these pictures and videos instantly with your friends and family. You are also able to “tag” people in the photo or video with you so that it can be shared with their friends and family as well. Theoretically, this is a great idea. However, too many people are posting pictures and videos of them doing illegal or kindly put, less than wise, things. What people are unaware of, however, is that many college admissions teams and employers are beginning to look at applicants profiles as a determining factor in their acceptance process.
No Longer Private
Many people do not realize that when they turn 18 their Facebook privacy settings automatically change. This means that the user has to go into their account settings and manually reset or change all of their privacy settings. If they do not do this potentially all internet users can see their profile, pictures and videos. These internet users include employers and college acceptance committees.
What Your Profile Says About You
Before social networking, admission counselors and employers looked at an applicant’s resume, cover letter and references to decide if they should accept the applicant into their school or business. Admissions counselors and employers always knew that these documents could be false and took the risk of finding out what the applicant was really like after they joined their school or business. Admission counselors and employers have come to realize that there is information about the applicant on their Facebook profile that cannot be seen on a resume. In fact, over 51% of surveyed employers reported viewing an applicant’s profile as a key part of the interviewing process. Some questions admissions counselors and employers hope to answer by viewing your Facebook: does the applicant party a lot? Are they nice? Do they have habits that would contradict values of the school or business? For example, if you’re attending a prestigious college that has a strong zero tolerance policy and have pictures on your Facebook of you drinking or doing illegal drugs, this could greatly harm your chances at admission if an admission counselor sees these.
Clean Up
When you are applying for college or jobs it’s important to change the security settings on your Facebook and take down anything that may harm your chances at snagging an offer. Under your account settings adjust it so that only friends can see your posts and pictures. Also delete all pictures and videos that could tarnish your reputation. Many admission counselors may friend request you on Facebook. If you have information you don’t want them to see, do not add them. Additionally, if you do add them you are able to block posts and pictures from them.
Your Best Bet
Although it may seem overly simple: don’t post anything on Facebook that you wouldn’t want the entire world to see. Although you are able to take precautions to limit who can view your information, once it is on the internet, there are ways for anyone to see your information. Your best bet is to not do anything that could hurt you in the Facebook. Don’t party underage or do illegal drugs and especially do not pose for pictures if you are. Although these things are fun for the moment, they can really, really hurt your future.
This post is written by Mark Jenkins and he works at CouponAudit as a writer, where thousands of valid and working online coupons for different stores are available including but not limited to Toms promo code and various other online stores.