Keep Facebook clean; employers are looking

Just spend a few minutes perusing social networking Web sites like Facebook and MySpace, and it’s increasingly clear millions of college students post photos of their friends at last night’s party dressed in less than conservative attire.

In many of these cases, the students are drinking underage or using illegal substances.

What these students might not realize is that future employers might be browsing the page as well.

An estimated 7.5 million college students use Facebook, according to a CBS report, and employers are well aware of these statistics.

So students might as well put a link of their profile on their resume, because corporations are looking.

And so are universities across the nation.

Now with Facebook allowing new high school students to creat profiles, universities are playing the role of employer and checking out the sites too, according to an Associated Press report.

So go ahead and put the link on college and graduate program applications as well.

If that is an unnerving thought, the solution is simple.

Keep your profile clean, legal and safe.

It is just like a resume; it’s a representation of who you are. Like it or not.

Turning profiles to private, while it might help, isn’t the answer.

The profile is on the Internet, therefore privacy doesn’t exist, and everything is fair game.

Adding new applications also decreases the privacy of the page.

When an application is added, all of the user information except the address is forwarded to a third party to use as they please.

Most of this information is used by advertisers to reach a more specific demographic, but if it’s out there, don’t think it can’t end up in the wrong hands.

Just don’t take the risk.

Is the site so important it’s worth jeopardizing your future?

If not, ask a buddy to replace that photo of you holding a solo cup from last night’s kegger with a photo of you studying in the library, and do the same for him or her.

Students across the nation are being held accountable for the content displayed on these networking sites.

Although it might not be as fun, in today’s technology-based world, it’s a reality.