To Post or Not to Post: College Students Should Be Wary of Their Social Media Use

from: BestCollegesOnline.com

Twitter, Facebook, and even the slowly dwindling MySpace – no doubt you have heard of these social phenomena that have infiltrated the everyday lives of modern teenagers and young adults across the country. These sites are dubbed "social media sites" because they encourage users to connect with one another and use their own pages as a means of representing their identity in the online community. They’ve even sprouted a lingo all their own. Twitter users "tweet" and "follow" one another. Facebook users "friend" (and sometimes even "un-friend") one another.

In fact, social media sites are so prevalent these days that job recruiters will use it to research applicants for a position. Sometimes, an applicant’s work-inappropriate Facebook or MySpace profile can break the deal, costing them the chance at a position. Other times, social media sites can even cost a currently employed worker his or her job. Such was the case for the infamous "Drunken Pirate" case in 2006, where student-teacher Stacy Snyder was refused a teaching degree just days before her graduation. Snyder had posted photographs from a costume party on her MySpace page, one of which was titled, "Drunken Pirate." In that photograph, she was drinking from a red plastic cup – the stereotypical cup of choice for alcohol-infused college parties. Millersville University found out about the photograph and denied Snyder a teaching degree on the grounds that she was not fit to teach because of her inappropriate behavior, though the photograph was taken off-campus.

This case was astonishing because social media sites and profiles are believed by many young adults to be a private sanctuary that is untouchable by the professional world. Many users of social media sites would not think twice about posting photographs from wild nights or rants about their job. However, the plain truth is that social media sites are on the Internet and therefore accessible to nearly anyone who has an Internet connection, which includes employers, professors, and even parents. At a time when college students face a tougher job market, it is imperative that they present their online personas in the same manner that they would present themselves in face-to-face encounters. That means you should think twice before putting up your album of embarrassing photographs from last weekend’s drunken debaucheries; you never know who may be looking at those photos besides your friends.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009 at 4:15 pm by BestCollegesOnline.com