Be careful what you Tweet about, it could cost you an admission spot into college. A recent article in the NY Times cautions that what you post on Twitter is likely to be viewed by college admissions, and if they don't like what they see…DENIED. New studies are being done about how many admissions officers are checking social media pages of future students, and it turns out that there is a 5% increase from last year saying that they are checking online to see what they can find.
There are different sides to this topic. Some people, like Brad Shear--a lawyer of social media law argues that checking possible students in this way could be unfair because there is a good chance what the officials find online will be fake. The argument to this idea is that teenagers who spend so much time on social media (in this case Twitter) and post unappealing things to their profile are not who admissions officers want to have in their schools and communities.
Both are good points, but I would have to side with Brad in this case. Checking online profiles is helpful, but if their credentials fit the University standards, then they shouldn't be penalized for what they did/do on Twitter. The chances are that even if their records are clean at the moment, the student could likely start posting unacceptable statuses and/or pictures once they've been accepted. Then what? Background checks are for careers, not college admittance. Let them get through the latter before they have to deal with real life crap and Big Brother always watching.
Twitter, and other social media sites have become a big problem for students enrolled into a university. I have heard numerous stories about student athletes getting suspended from their athletic team, because of something that they tweeted about. People need to be more and more careful each day to make sure that they are not tweeting about something that may offend other people. If these students are tweeting about things that they should not be tweeting about, they will pay the price.
ReplyDeleteI also would agree with Brad in this case. It should be a person's credentials that are only viewed, not their social media site. Not only are Universities look at social media sites, but also many people don't get jobs because the company will look at social media sites too.
ReplyDeleteWow, I was not expecting to see colleges checking out people's social media sites to see if they will be accepted. I think this is unfair to those people who get rejected because of one or two bad posts. Who knows....it might of been one of their friends playing a joke and posting it. People should watch what they post onto Twitter and other social networks, but it should not be up to the college to decide if they are accepted. This was a very interesting topic and it really caught my attention.
ReplyDeleteThis is crazy! I had no idea that people would check people out before they would accept them into college! I feel that most people do not know this and I know that a lot of high school senior do not care what they post to social media websites. People need to be more careful to what they Tweet about, especially youngsters looking to get into to college and also people who are looking for jobs!
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