Your Future is in the Hands of Facebook

Your Future

is in the
Hands of

Remember when you thought it was cool to post pictures on Facebook of you and all your friends with red cups in your hands? Sure, it was cool when you were 16 maybe 17 years old, but what’s not cool is the effect it could have on your future.

High School students post pictures and statuses on Facebook every single day. What you probably don’t know about this is that today (yes, this very day), more than 80% of all colleges use social media as a form of recruitment. Not only is it scary that colleges use Facebook, but more than half of schools actually use it in their decision process.

You would think that they wouldn’t look at your page out of all the applicants that they have, but some admissions officers said they had rejected students because of material on the sites. You may think that your pictures are harmless, but a teenagers opinion is different than somebody who is reviewing your college application. Colleges take things more seriously than high-schoolers do because potentially, you are the one that is going to be representing their school.

According to a recent Kaplan Test Prep survey of 350 admissions officers, more than 25 percent of school officials said they had looked up applicants on Facebook or Google. Anna Redmond, a 30-year-old former interviewer for Harvard University who blogs about college admissions, says that she started regularly googling prospective students years ago. She says that she would find posts of applicants complaining, and sometimes even pictures of underage drinking.

Once this information started spreading about how college admissions check your Facebook page, high-schoolers started deleting their profiles. A senior from BASIS Scottsdale in Arizona, Abigail Swift, deleted her Facebook page at the start of junior year when she was beginning her college search. “I don’t want what I put on my Facebook or what I don’t put on my Facebook to sway their opinion of me,” she says, “I just don’t think it’s fair for them to base acceptance on that.” Many students agree with Abigail and are starting to either delete their profiles, or change their names on Facebook so they cannot be found.

Colleges' recent interest in social-networking sites is leading many aspiring students to take a hard look at their online habits and in some cases to remove or change postings. It is good that colleges have been looking at Facebook profiles because it teaches high school students to be more aware of what they post online for others to see.

Don't Drop The Ball

Don’t Drop The Ball

Click, send, and pray.  Pray that no one sees your stupid picture or tweet.  Unfortunately everyone will see it.  Just hope your coach isn’t everyone.  Social Media is a very powerful tool, and can be very positive and negative.  It is silly to think Coaches, High Schools, Universities, or Professional Teams and Clubs don’t check Social Media.  

SOCIAL MEDIA SITES INCLUDE BUT NOT LIMITED TO:

Twitter, Facebook, Buzznet, Formspring

Instagram, Myspace, Flickr

Athletes need to be smarter than the average joe because they are under more of a microscope.  Athletes represent more than just themselves, they represent the very High School or University etc. that cheer for them every game.  Do you want to let all of them down?  One picture or tweet can jeopardize an athlete’s entire athletic career and reputation.

EXPERIENCE

I know from experience what can happen when Social Media is used negatively.  A buddy from my High School played football with me my junior year.  One night he was stupid and took a picture of himself funneling beer at a party..  Soon after my coach found out and he was kicked off the team, alienated, and viewed as a traitor.  One picture, one mistake, is all it takes.

DON’T LET IT BE YOU

Everyone has the mindset of “Oh it won’t happen to me,” or “Coach isn’t going to see it,” and take that risk.  Sure you may get away with it one maybe two times.  You’re the man now.  Enjoy it while it last because at any time everything could be taken away.  All that hard work and preparation...Gone.  Athletes need to realize there is a certain swagger and attention brought upon them.  Sometimes self-inflicted, sometimes unwanted.  It can be tough at times as an athlete to get used to the spotlight and attention, however, Social Media cannot be the reason for the attention.

WRAP-UP

Handle your business on the field and stay smart socially.  The repercussions of abusing Social Media are extremely serious.  Fines, Suspensions, or Complete removal from a team are all realistic punishments.  Athletes are given gifts of athletic ability.  It would be a shame to see that obliterated over some stupid picture at a party.  Social Media can be fun and very positive, don’t abuse it.

FACTS ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA

• In February 2012, 20% of 18-24 year old Student-Athletes were using Twitter on a typical day.  Just one year later, 72% of Student-Athletes have a Twitter account

• Of a random survey taken 93.5% of student-athletes have a Facebook

• 64.81% have an Instagram

• 23.1% of Student-Athletes with a twitter have tweeted something inappropriate (racial, sexual, violence, profanity, drug/alcohol use)

• 22.3% of Student-Athletes with a Facebook have posted something inappropriate (racial, sexual, violence, profanity, drug/alcohol use)

A Tweet a Day Keeps the Questions Away

As of 2012...

- 40% of people communicate more over social networking rather than face-to-face.

- 91% of smart phones are used for social networking.

- 3,600 photos are uploaded to instagram every minute.

- 100,000 tweets are sent a minute, and 11+ accounts are added each second.

- Over 1 billion Facebook profiles exist.

… So, is it really any surprise that social networking now takes place in much of education? Not many people think so.

http://ow.ly/qUCRO

Of course, as many would agree, when you think of social media being used in an educational setting, you automatically think “Uhm.. now how will that work?” But to much of our surprise, 73% of teachers use social media in their classrooms. With our ever-changing world, comes new ways of learning, experiencing, and teaching. With that, we find social networking playing a new role in education, and also teaching us more personal aspects of each other as well.

With teachers using social media, many students explain that it’s fun, and a much quicker way to communicate. The importance of knowing your students and what their abilities are, has become a strong attribute in education nowadays and with the use of Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and other social networking sites, teachers make this possible.

Trendy, fun, and gets everyone involved.

Penn State Art professor, Anna Divinsky, taught her entire class through social media. After students would create a piece, they would upload their finished product to Flickr, and were able to comment on each others’ creations. Through this, the students were able to see each others’ work, and also connect and share their work socially. By turning Flickr into a class, it  made the class enjoyable and exciting for the students, and also very different from anything they had done before.

So there are benefits?

Although many people are opposed to the idea of social networking being used in a classroom, they are blind to the benefits and positive changes it may bring, which include:

- Learning about our peers

- Receive the answers we need

- Communication

- Getting everyone involved

- Keeping up with the advancing world

With our fast paced lives, it’s important to have what we need at our use whenever we need it. Education no longer exists in just a classroom, and it has truly begun to expand. Instead of shutting down the idea of social media in schools, it’s important that we embrace the idea and welcome the tweets from our teachers and peers. And hey, resolving the stumped homework question you may have has never looked so easy.

Say It To My Face

The Scenario:
Your best friend got into a fight with some kid today in school. Later that night, you’re on Facebook. That kid that was messing with your friend posted a status about the fight. You get angry and decide to let him know how you feel about it. You go on and on saying really mean things to get your point across. You threaten him and tell him you’re going to fight him. Things start to escalate very quickly. Are you thinking about the consequences of what you’re saying? No. Would you say these things to that person face to face? Probably not.

The Problem:

A serious issue with many high school students nowadays is that their high school drama is easily transferred from school to home using social media. In other words, in todays world, you don’t need to wait until the next school day to argue or harass someone because social media networks like Facebook and Twitter make it possible to connect with or bully people at any time of the day.

The Solution:

The next time you decide to get into a fight using social media, ask yourself two questions: What’s the worst thing that can happen if I do this? And would I say that to a person’s face? If the answer to either of those is no, chances are you should be the more mature person and keep what you have to say to yourself.

The Menace Behind the Machine

THE MENACE BEHIND THE  MACHINE

More than one in three young people have experienced cyber threats online. Over 25 percent of adolescents and teens have been bullied repeatedly through their cell phones or the Internet. Cyber bullying is a huge issue that more people need to start noticing.  Mean or hurtful comments and rumors spread online are the most common types of cyberbullying. Skipping school, receiving poor grades, have lower self-esteem, have more health problems, and suicide are all side effects of cyberbullying. Suicide is the most serious effect to this horrible act.               

SUICIDE

Teens, especially in middle school, are starting to take the stress of being bullied out on themselves. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people, resulting in about 4,400 deaths per year, according to the CDC. For every suicide among young people, there are at least 100 suicide attempts. Over 14 percent of high school students have considered suicide, and almost 7 percent have attempted it. Suicide directly links to cyberbullying because teens get bullied behind a computer screen and have no one to stand up for them. They go through the whole process on their own. Sometimes, suicide is their only option.

For Example, Rebecca Ann Sedwick, 12 years old, committed suicide in near home in Miami over cyber bullying. She changed her username on Kik Messenger, a cellphone application for messaging, to “That Dead Girl.” Rebecca then delivered a message to two of her friends, saying goodbye forever. She then climbed a platform at an abandoned cement plant near her home in the Central Florida city of Lakeland and leaped to the ground. For more than a year, Rebecca was cyberbullied by 15 middle-school children (including her own boyfriend) who encouraged her to kill herself, her mother said. The Polk County sheriff’s office is investigating the role of cyberbullying in the suicide and considering filing charges against the middle-school students who apparently taunted Rebecca with hostile text messages. Florida passed a law this year making it easier to bring felony charges in online bullying cases. Hopefully, cyber bullying will be completely stopped and children understand the dangers of other’s lives.

Cyber bullying is the most negative effect of social media. It is the most unhealthy act. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people, resulting in about 4,400 deaths per year, according to the CDC. Social media enables young teens to bully others without dealing with the other person’s feelings. They cannot see how someone actually feels or is affected by the bullying through a computer screen. Although parents can try to prevent cyberbullying by limiting the use of their children’s computers and monitor what they are doing, it is still slowly ruining more and more teens lives every single day.

Think Before You Post

Why can’t students understand that anyone can see anything they post in their social world? You know that in the 21st century with the technology advances our country has made, that high school students and college students, of social media like Twitter, Instagram, Vine and Facebook is inevitable. How these students choose to use this new technology is their decision. Students live so much in the present that they don’t think too much about the future, especially when it comes to the job application process and the involvement on sports teams.

For example, with most job applications or interviews, there are questions asked about the future employees use of social media. When you're in a job interview your interviewer is most likely going to ask you “do you have a Facebook?”, if your answer is yes then you should probably delete any inappropriate photos, videos or posts. Even if it is just a photo of you with a red cup and you weren’t drinking alcohol companies don’t want to be associated with someone who lives that type of life, especially when you're underage. It doesn’t even matter if you’re 21, jobs still won’t want to hire someone whose profile picture is you with a drink in your hand at some bar. It creates a bad image for the company that hires you. CBS news did a report on how Facebook updates cost young people to lose their jobs and pointed out “The report, by On Device Research, states that one in ten people between ages 16 and 34 have been turned down for a new job because of photos or comments on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other social networking sites” http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57586908/. Even with these statistics students still continue to post what they want to post. CBS news also adds that 66% of the students who were rejected from the job still don’t care that these accounts affect their job opportunities. I believe that unless you are individually affected by this or you know someone who has been, it becomes hard to see the reality of the consequences.

Being on a sports team, I have to be very careful of what I post on my social media apps. My coaches have access to everything and the last thing  I would want to happen would be my coach to see me at a party and me get kicked off the team or suspended. In high school, a girl on my soccer team got kicked off because of what she said about our coach on Facebook. It was somewhat harmless, but someone printed out the post and left it in my coach’s mailbox. We all had a good laugh until playoffs came and our star defensive mid was watching from the bleachers.Unfortunately this happens to many high school and college athletes. Students just need to become aware of what they're posting on their social media and who can access their posts. So think twice before you go around sharing your life with the world!

View Image: http://ow.ly/qmcNr

Keeping in Touch Instantly

Name any news organization imaginable, on Twitter, you can receive the latest news in the fastest way possible.  You can be up to date with the events happening at home, in the country or even around the world in a matter of seconds.  For me I enjoy news from at home, national and world wide.  Following a TV news station from your home, or a newspaper from home will give you links to full stories and/or a brief of said story.  While at college it’s easy to stay disconnected from the outside world.  I know this all too well because I haven’t been updated as much as I could be from news back at home.  By following news media while you’re away from home like attending college, or on vacation you can always be connected on the go.

Importance

Any news under the sun can be followed. It is important to keep up to date with current events close to home.  Even events around the world can impact you.  A teacher could have passed away, a close friend could have been in a car accident or your favorite restaurant could have been burnt down.  Some event overseas could impact the United States so it’s important to know that.  Things similar and more serious than this could be happening unbenounced to you, important things.

Thoughts

In my opinion Twitter and News Media is very important, and a useful tool around the clock no matter where you may be.  It can really help you stay in touch with what’s happening around the world as well as what’s happening close by.  Twitter bridges the gap between people and all news media across the world for easy instant access.

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