Be careful what you say.
In this new digital age where everything is instantaneous, it’s almost impossible to take back something you said five or ten years ago. Whatever you posted, wrote or photographed on your Facebook wall while you were in college can make you regret every minute of it right now.
Of course, you should always be careful of the things said on social networking sites, especially if it can cause issues with the family or your job. But when you’re young, having fun and think you’re invincible, are you really concerned about who’s looking at your grad party pictures and what they may be thinking?
A social media professor at Stanford University, Howard Rheingold, sees the effects of bad decisions now amongst his former students. Some of them have been denied jobs or passed over for positions in their postgraduate field. This has been mostly due to their Facebook activity that potential employers have looked at, and decided that the person was not a good fit for their company.
Professor Rheingold knows that the questionable and inappropriate behavior exemplified by some of his students is still penalzing them, even five or more years later. But, he has also begun to notice that because of that social networking backlash, students are beginning to change their behavior, or at least watch more carefully what they put on their pages.
Schools and universities now warn students against developing a negative online presentation. According to the director a the Centre for the Digital Future, American employers have always referenced potential employees social network pages to find out information about the job applicants. The director, Jeff Cole, says that the online digital footprint that individuals are making now will be there for years to come, and may have an adverse, negative affect on their future.
Jen Williams
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