<p>Today at school we had a big assembly about how important it is to monitor what you are post on social media, and how it may affect your college acceptances. There were numerous examples of students who posted things that did not seem that bad, but ended up really hurting them and even getting them kicked out of school or arrested. By the end of the presentation, everyone was on their phones and computers checking their Twitters, Instagrams, and Facebooks. However, one of the most important questions that was addressed was:</p>
<p>"What do people who don’t know you think about you when they see you on the internet?"</p>
<p>It is one thing for you to go through your posts and make decisions on what is acceptable and what is not, but you have a bias when looking through your photos and background knowledge that admissions officers may not have. For example, a picture of you at a school function drinking a cup of soda with your friends may seem totally fine to you. However, to someone who is not familiar with your activities, it may appear as partying or underage drinking. This was just one real life example that they gave. </p>
<p>That is why it is important to have someone who does not know you research and look through your public social media accounts. We should start a service on CC where people can look thorough your accounts for you to see if there is anything that reflects badly upon your character. </p>
<p>If anyone wants their online presence checked, let me know! Also, if anyone is interested in helping other people out by looking at their online footprints, please reply that you are willing to help.</p>
<p>I make sure to stay friends on social media with my parents, old teachers, other adults I respect, and kids who look up to me. That way, I don’t post anything I don’t want them to see, and my social media stays very clean and respectable. If nothing else, at least pretend that someone you respect or who respects you can see everything that you post. </p>
<p>I’m just going to toss out a few general questions and see if anybody answers them. </p>
<p>To what extent can colleges possibly snoop around on social media? What if you don’t even use your real name on social media sites and the only way to track you down is through your email address? Would colleges even bother going to the extent where they search you up by email address for sites that allow you to do so rather than by name? What about sites where you can make most of your posts/pictures/etc. private and only viewable by contacts/friends/etc. like Facebook and Google+?</p>
<p>I would assume that colleges that receive tens of thousand of freshman applications are not investigating your social media. Further down the line, however, I would posit that potential employers are looking at social media for their short-listed candidates. Content marked private (e.g. in Facebook) are only viewable based upon your privacy settings.</p>
<p>Even still, I would not post items on social media that I would not want my mother to see. Common sense should prevail.</p>
<p>@skieurope Very true. Personally, I have nothing to hide on my social media (I have former teachers added, after all), but I’m just extremely paranoid when it comes to personal property of any sort, whether physical or digital, even with very close friends and family members. Probably just an effect of my extreme sense of self consciousness in general.</p>
<p>Some colleges definitely look at your social media, especially when they are on the fence about accepting you and want to double check that you are the type of student that they want on their campus. However, they cannot see your information that is set to private.</p>
What about snapchat? Is there any way colleges can access pictures that have since been “deleted” or disappeared from the app (as per what I understand normal snapchats do)? Personally I dont have anything bad on social media- or even a Snapchat account- but I am curious?