Social networking has hazards, roadblocks

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With social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter growing more popular everyday, it’s important to know the risks and dangers, especially for students’ professional future.

Just about anyone can view the pictures and posts users put online, which also means employers can.

“First impressions are first impressions, electronic or in person,” Director of Career Services Julia Sherlock said.

Sherlock emphasized the importance of only putting things online which give out a positive image.

“You got to remember that it stays out there,” Sherlock said. “What you put online right now, today, will stay out there forever.”

A picture of someone covered in Sharpie marker with two 40-ounce bottles of beer taped to their hand doesn’t disappear from the Internet just because it was removed from the main site.

“One thing I wouldn’t post (is) any kind of partying. It’s not the image you want to be represented by,” Sherlock said.

Many career service agencies highly advise against putting compromising photos of yourself online.

Detroit junior Francesca Savino said she knows the importance of this.

“I personally say it’s a bad idea to put pictures like that on Facebook,” Savino said. “I never put any pictures of me with beer or cigarettes online.”

The dangers of social networking sites are nothing new. Since the start of social networking sites there have been warnings about the various risks that users face when using them, but only in the last couple years has the danger shifted from personal harm, to academic and professional harm.

Grand Rapids freshman Steve Blazer has made sure he does not risk compromising his professional future.

“I know that employers look for those pictures now,” Blazer said, “And that it can affect whether you get the job or not.”