Monday, November 25, 2013

Online Rep

Recently some colleges have announced that they have denied students admission into college because of the content they post online.  Angered students call this an invasion of privacy, but what we must realize is nothing we put on the internet is private.

There are private settings on Twitter and Facebook which protect your tweets from anybody who isn't your follower or friend.  However, pictures of your posts can be taken and sent around to anyone.  Also, your followers most likely aren't seclusive to just your close group of friends.  You probably have anywhere from 100-600 friends or followers on your social media sites.  That's a lot of eyes on what you post to the internet.  This should make you think twice before you post anything containing offensive or cruel content.

Some people think that it's unusual and time consuming to search each college applicant.  Also the issue comes up that not everything posted on the internet is true.  This comes back to keeping your online profile professional.  Maybe it is odd that colleges would go out of the way to search you on the internet, but it is possibility.  Keeping a professional profile rids of any risks of a college admissions officer finding inappropriate content.

The fact of the matter is that the internet is a tool open to college admissions.  Whether you think it is fair or unfair, they have access to it.  Most colleges may not use it, but it is important to consider the possibility that they might.

A simple fix to this problem is just to not post anything online that you wouldn't want an admissions officer to see.  Think twice before you post content on the internet.



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