New Facebook notification chomps at careers, colleges

It’s becoming increasingly typical of an employer to stumble upon the Facebook profile of a recent interviewee and read an incriminating status update. “Bad first impression from my soon-to-be boss,” one could say. “She smelt like moldy cheese and asked the dumbest questions imaginable.” In today’s world of instant gratification, a fleeting thought initially considered harmless can easily translate to a regrettable mistake. “The 6 Career Killing Facebook Mistakes,” provided by Investopedia and listed in the Personal Finance section of the Yahoo! Web site, has discussed the reality of Facebook impacting the future careers of college students.

 Up to 400 million people daily keep their social networking identities fresh using Facebook. Thoughts, pictures, videos and personal information can be posted within seconds and erased just as easily. It’s life compacted into a computer screen. But just as a person’s life can be flipped upside down offline, the probability of a critical misstep is arguably heightened online. For Keene State College students, no better example has been made regarding the sensitivity associated with publicly viewable content than the newly discovered Facebook photos taken inside a prohibited part of the campus. The incident resulted in the probation of a few students from on-campus residence halls.

Students attending not only KSC, but all institutions worldwide need to recognize the severity of the consequences infringed upon questionable Facebook activity. Whether it’s photographic evidence of underage drinking, a status-driven confession of hatred towards a school teacher or a friend’s admittance to cheating on an important exam via wall post, Facebook doesn’t hide its leading characteristic as an open forum. Privacy settings do exist but a rational decision would be to take advantage of the site’s newest feature of limiting profile access on a friend-by-friend basis. For a location so unrestricted in many regards displaying a profile picture, listing schooling and educational information  it would be naïve of the youth drawn to Facebook to write off the sites potential impact on their lives outside of the internet.

College students especially have everything to lose. Should a reputable business manager stumble upon an undergraduate’s Facebook profile and discover information that in any way contradicts their resume, the possibility of a successful future in the working world is deleted. Four years of hard work shouldn’t be in vain. Don’t allow a poorly supervised Web page ruin what could be decades of prosperity in a well-paid, fulfilling occupation. Fun can be had on Facebook without “un-tagging” what really matters: long-term happiness.