How the social media affects your chances of getting into college and being hired for a job

Did you know that what you put on the internet can affect your life even years later?  Many teens don’t realize this, or even think before they put something on the internet. Once you put something on the internet everyone can see it, even if you delete it, it can still be found.  Many people also believe that if you put your account on private no one else can see it except for your friends, but that isn’t true.  People can just google your name and your twitter account or things you have posted on twitter will just pop up.  They can also view your account through your friends.  These issues are beginning to spread more now, but teens don’t always realize that putting something online can cost you an acceptance to a college or even your job as an adult.    

Taken from http://ow.ly/qhKgY

A survey found that 29%  of admissions offices at accredited, four-year schools across the United States use social networking sites.  They do this to look at both students they are looking to accept into the college and current students they have.  

Not only admission offices look at social media sites but also athletic departments.  For example on my college soccer team our coach told us that we had to go onto all of our social media sites and delete anything we would not want our administrator seeing.  This was because the athletic department would be looking at our sites and if there was anything bad we could get in trouble.  If sports teams are looking at this once we are in college than administration offices definitely are when accepting the students to their college.

HOW THE SOCIAL MEDIA AFFECTS YOU GETTING INTO COLLEGE

Being accepted to a college is a big step in many people’s lives.  It can decide where you will go in the future and what your life will be like.  For many people, including myself, there was one college that I knew was the right fit for me and I had a good chance of getting into.  But what many people don’t know is that grades are not the only thing colleges look at.  Of course that is the first thing they look at, but what else can they do to see what kind of a person you are?  If they really want to they can type your name into google and research you.  The first thing that could pop up when they put your name in is a picture of you drinking alcohol.  This image of you could change their minds and they could reject you from the school because they don’t want your bad behavior to be associated with their school.  This website helps explains why teens have to be careful of what they post on the internet.

HOW YOU CAN LOSE A JOB OPPORTUNITY FOR WHAT YOU PUT ON THE INTERNET THREE YEARS AGO

When looking for a job, what if you want to be an elementary education teacher and have a great resume with a good college degree and great recommendations?  You would think that you have a good chance of being hired right?  But this could be wrong if you made one mistake.  If three years ago in college you put a picture up on Facebook of you doing a keg stand, this could completely ruin your chances of getting hired to work at an elementary school.  You could be highly considered for the job, but when the school looks up your Facebook account and finds that they could see you as irresponsible and not hire you.  When people are in the process of hiring someone to work for them they do all kinds of research and background checks on them.  Job firms have specific people that they use to lookup people on the internet specifically just to see if they can find anything bad on them, kinda like a background check.   If they find anything that may seem like you are irresponsible or unreliable they will consider not hiring you.   This website helps explain why college graduates have to be careful about what they post on social networks.