An article by John Hechinger called, College Applicants, Beware: Your Facebook is Showing, suggests that a safe way to determine what should go on your Facebook page is to ask "Is this something you would want your grandmother to see?"
College students are not the only ones that have to worry about what they put on their Facebook page. We have all heard the warnings over and over to be careful about what we post because future employers will be looking and whether or not we get hired could be determined by what we have on our Facebook. Now high school students must consider the same thing because college admissions are now taking an online peek to see what kind of people their applicants really are.
"A new survey of 500 top colleges found that 10% of admissions officers acknowledged looking at social-networking sites to evaluate applicants. Of those colleges making use of the online information, 38% said that what they saw "negatively affected" their views of the applicant."
These universities and institutions use this precautionary measure as a way to protect their name. Although they cannot take the time to review everyone's page it gets much easier when deciding among a few finalists for a scholarship.
Although some colleges admissions staffs have taken it upon themselves to browse potential student's Facebook pages, others intentionally avoid it.
"Sandra Starke, vice provost for enrollment management at the State University of New York at Binghamton, says she instructs her staff to ignore Facebook and other sites because she considers postings to be casual conversations, the online equivalent of street-corner banter. 'At this age, the students are still experimenting,' she says. 'It's a time for them to learn. It's important for them to grow. We need to be careful how we might use Facebook.'"
As I consider this article I find myself wondering, what are they really looking for on a high school student's Facebook page? Just about everyone I know has significantly changed since high school. Some for the better, and unfortunately some for the worse. I feel that any information that they feel reflects on the applicants character cannot be fully trusted. High school, and college are a time of growing up, experimenting, and finding out who you are. Also who is to say that being accepted to a great school wouldn't turn a "questionable" applicant's life around. I think that snooping around on high school students' Facebook pages is a waste of time and will more often than not produce inaccurate judgements of character. Despite my feelings on this issue, I agree that people should carefully consider what they post for the public to see. And the suggested filter "Is this something you would want your grandmother to see" is a wise use of your time. What do you think??
Sunday, March 8, 2009
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I completely agree with you! I cannot express how sick I am of hearing how Universities, employers, scholarship boards,Ect. are looking at your facebook page to see what kind of person you are. Unfortunately for me this is a hot topic therefore I am forced to hear about it ALL THE TIME! This has grown into one of my biggest pet peeves recently. How can anyone look at someones facebook profile whether the person in question is in high school or in college and make a snap judgement about them. In my opinion if an employer is looking at a particular person to decide if they get a job or not, the amount of pictures where the person is holding a beer is hardly relevant. What do they think is going to happen, this person is going to crack a beer open at the workplace all the time? The person portrayed on a facebook page is hardly the person someone would be at a job. Just because someone goes out on weekends(heaven forbid) does not mean they are not worthy of a decent job or a scholarship. Granted that the person is old enough to be out and consuming alcohol of course.
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