Caitlin Williamson – Special to the Southern News
The words, “whatever you put on the internet will be there forever, the minute you click that enter button,” from my dear mother have echoed in my ears since the rebellious age of sixteen years old. It was social suicide to not have a picture of you sticking your tongue out, a backwards peace sign, and a solo cup in hand to prove that you really were cool in high school and you really did have friends. This trend carried itself into the college years, where keg stands and pictures of chugging Dubra right out of the bottle were the hit profile pictures.
While, yes, at that exact moment these pictures seemed nothing but right to have online you hit your junior year of college and begin to remember those ringing words your mother always told you. Job application times are approaching, graduation is around the corner, and times have changed for our generation. Resumes will always be relevant, educational background will remain important, but there is now a new factor for employers to check out; social media accounts.
This harsh reality hit me like a ton of bricks, as I scrambled to delete my Facebook and list all my remaining accounts private and nearly impossible to reach. However, those photos were and still are floating throughout cyberspace just like the rest of those darling sloppy photos we all have out there somewhere. Needless to say I began to worry, I involved myself with school as much as possible in order to replace the possible backlash I would receive from employers, boosted my grades to an impressive standard, and remained off Facebook or allowing any not so pleasant photos of me to be taken. Is this worry really necessary? Surely a job will hire someone and understand the college students just had some good years leading up to adulthood, right?
Look at this system in these terms, not only are you making it available for the employer on paper to see your achievements, grade point average, past working experience, but you are now allowing them into your personal life with visual evidence of what you are and do beyond the cubicle walls of work; terrifying, I agree but this is the harsh truth.
Companies tend to now realize that the fresh generation approaching their business will more than likely have at least one to two social media accounts. By no means does this mean that the employers aren’t looking over your experiences and previous internships, but this could be the breaking decision between another candidate and your resume. There seems to be an increasingly higher chance of employers looking at your profiles and not so professional photos or even written words over a candidate’s grade point average or school involvement. This is not in every case, but this is a chance and with technology growing by the millisecond this will continue to be an even larger scenario as years go on.
So for future references, maybe flipping off the camera with your tongue out isn’t the cutest choice of poses, or that body shot Sarah and Rach think is the funniest thing is better left as a mental memory, rather than a Kodak moment. Think smart, and remember the minute something enters the cyberspace world; it is there and will remain there forever!
