Clean Up Your Facebook Kids

Our son went off to college a few weeks ago. He’s a freshman and while his school isn’t too far away, he’s living on campus and loving his new life. The other day, much to my surprise, he ‘friended” me on Facebook. While I wasn’t sure that I wanted to know about his comings and goings, I was, well, honored and felt it was a huge step in his maturity. I looked at his posts and his pictures and luckily, all was above board and there wasn’t too much to worry about. I did worry about his friends though. I was surprised that I was able to look at the pictures and status of many of his friends; those still in high school as well as those in college. As a job search coach, that really bothered me (the Mom in me was really annoyed).

Most of the pictures are of underage drinking. First of all, that’s illegal. It’s wrong and as parents we need to monitor our kids and not close our eyes to what is going on right under our noses. There are plenty of resources out there for help in this area. I personally feel strongly about this subject and don’t have much empathy for parents who throw up their hands and say that there is nothing that they can do about it.

Since this is a job search blog though, I asked myself if the high school kids realize that the admissions counselor at the college they want to attend can look at those pictures. If I can easily look up a name, couldn’t a college or a potential employer? Also, how do the college kids who want to get an internship, summer job or a “real” job expect to get any employment offers if they are only depicted as partying?

First of all stop with all the partying (especially if you’re in high school). Next, correct your security options on your social media accounts. Most people age 25+ are aware of this and have corrected their settings. The younger crowd, who is supposedly much more technically savvy, are posting their pages and pictures out there for the whole world to see. Perhaps it doesn’t mean anything to them now but it should.