By Jessica McCurdy Crooks
Teens and college-aged young people were born in the information age. Their ease of use and comfort with the emerging technology is amazing, but it is also a source of grave danger to them as well. Very few college age youngsters don't have at least one social networking account on the Internet. Here, they feel free to let their hair down, but could well be getting themselves into big trouble also.
Everyone is well versed in the dangers of online sexual predators and cyber bullying. However, many other dangers lurk online to capture as many young people as they can. Some of these dangers start out innocent enough.
One major area that kids need to be cognizant of when online is that of their future employment. Now that it's time to enjoy college and have fun, few seem to think about the damage to their career prospects after college. In the spirit of fun, they post drunken pictures of themselves behaving badly or other such images and writings.
Employers on social media sites
These days, and there is no doubt that this is a trend that will not slow, employers are researching employment prospects online. They are looking for any information that will help them decide whether to offer you a job or not.
That funny picture you posted after a frat party may not be that funny a year or two down the line when you are job hunting.
Cleaning up your online persona
Many kids think that once it's online then it's there forever, but this is not necessarily true if you know what to do. It may take some work, but you can scrub yourself clean from the Internet and social media sites.
One new way to do this is by using what is called the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine, which will systematically clean and then eliminate your social networking profiles. I know, tempting, right?
It's best however to save yourself from having to scrub information from the Internet. You can start being conscious of what type of information you put online.
Here's one easy tip. Make your posts and pictures on social media sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter private. For example on Facebook, to remove yourself from public search, do the following:
- Go to Settings
- Select "Privacy Settings"
- Select the menu box to the right of the About Me tab and choose the option you want. The choices are: Everyone, Friends of Friends, Only Friends and Customize.
All these are self explanatory, but the Customize option gives you more control over who can see your About Me information. You can even use this option to limit this information just to yourself or selected persons. Of course, this is all so much wasted time if you "friend" everyone who bothers to ask -- some of those might be potential recruiters.
Utilizing the privacy settings on social media sites will at least keep some information and pictures from being public fodder. Here are some more tips:
