Take special care of internet image

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If we are not friends on Facebook, don’t expect the opportunity to check out my default pictures. If someone enters my name in a search engine, there is a better chance he or she will come across my stories before the tweets I’ve written. If one types in, “Toscano, Cristina” in the MSU “Find People” box, he or she probably won’t know much more about me beyond my e-mail address.

I could be called cautious or even paranoid. Not that I necessarily have anything to hide, but I am definitely not one for letting it all hang out in every aspect of life. It’s not that I want to be so hidden from the world that someone needs a bloodhound to find me. Instead, I like to keep my information protected in order to prevent bloodhounds from needing to track me down, if you catch my drift.

In a Microsoft survey, 70 percent of job recruiters in the U.S. said they reject candidates based on the information about said candidate they’ve found online. That includes comments, discussions on forums and even something as harmless as a picture. Four years ago, a 25-year-old teacher in training was prevented from receiving her teaching degree because of a common mistake many of us Generation Y’ers wind up making — posting a drunken picture.

Although I don’t think there is anything wrong with the ability to do a keg stand for one minute straight, I do think if that is all an employer can really notice about applicants from their online personality, then we might want to start undersharing instead of constantly oversharing.

Because of the 7-out-of-10 chance recruiters will deny a person a job based on their overqualified keg stand abilities, I’ve begun to notice more people taking extreme measures to ensure they won’t be able to be judged based on some goofy pictures. Some measures include blocking people, pictures and even deleting accounts.

An article from The New York Times talks about how, once something is up on the Internet, it will stay there forever, and depending what is posted, could end up causing some serious damage to one’s future. The author of the article states, “The fact that the Internet never seems to forget is threatening, at an almost existential level, our ability to control our identities; to preserve the option of reinventing ourselves and starting anew; to overcome our checkered pasts.”

So what happens when the entirety of a person’s network (including future employers) reads a status update that says, “Almost peed the bed last night after such a crazy night out!”? I bet there would be a few friends that would “like” it, but I don’t think it would help much when an individual is looking for a job to pay the rent. That is, unless he or she is looking to be a professional bed wetter; then that’s a different story.

However, there is more to a person than just his or her online profile. With this extreme censorship and lack of privacy, are we so afraid to publish pictures or updates that might prove to future employers that we are, God forbid, college students?

We enjoy our friends and stay out late on the weekends instead of being stressed in a library. Maybe we’ll take pictures with some silly faces or have a hilariously inappropriate Twitter background representing our sense of humor. That doesn’t make us any less professional or capable of a job, but we unfortunately still will be judged by at least one person or company based on those choices.

It’s a little harder to throw caution to the wind these days, especially since an online profile is meant for all people to look at, from a college roommate or an old babysitter to the guy from the lecture who you talked to once or the person who has a crush on you. It could even be your grandma or the ISP professor. Point is, it’s not just for best friends. So try to remember to put the best foot forward, whether it’s online, or in reality, because we never know who is virtually investigating us.

Cristina Toscano is a State News guest columnist. Reach her at toscanoc@msu.edu.

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