Nowadays, people have almost complete access to every social media platform, at the palms of their hands.

People, specifically young adults, post willy-nilly, not realizing, or caring, how their digital footprint can affect their lives when it comes to school and jobs. From posting on their Instagram stories to posting a TikTok, most people don’t take heed of the consequences of their actions.

Students should be very wary of what they post, especially if they want to go into college or get hired with a company. There have been multiple instances of people being rejected from colleges due to inappropriate content on their social media.

According to a survey conducted by Kaplan Test Prep, in which they surveyed college admissions officers, “of the hundreds of admissions officers surveyed, 66 percent… see no issue with social media being part of the admissions equation.”

Head Judson football coach, Coach Soto, weighed in on how the social media of an athlete can affect college admissions.

“I think [social media] is almost like their resume. They need to make sure they keep it clean and keep it positive,” Soto explains. “A lot of kids like to post things on social media that aren’t appropriate. And when college coaches come looking (and they do look), it makes them not want to recruit them because of the negativity that they have on their social media,” he continued.

Soto described what to and what not to put on your social media.

“Music with bad lyrics, distasteful jokes, racist remarks, things like that are what [college recruiters] look for [on potential recruits’ social media platforms]. They don’t want that element on their team. The other thing they’re looking for is selfishness on their social media. Are they posting nothing but their stats? When a player posts, ‘We lost the game but I had all these stats and I played my best game,’ [colleges] don’t want to recruit [a person with that character.]”

On the career side of things, corporate jobs regularly conduct social media screenings, which consists of employers going through potential employees’ social media accounts. According to David Cotriss on Business News Daily, employers look for “red flags that include the sharing of illegal activities, offensive comments, violent or aggressive behavior, sexually explicit material, and confidential information.”

“In addition to what you’re posting, make sure you are cognizant of who you follow and how they are interacting with your content,” Cotriss warns.

The Harris Poll conducted a survey on a number of employers and they found that “7 in 10 companies (70 percent) report they utilize their [social media screenings] to research potential job candidates.”

Not only do employers do screenings on prospective employers, but they also look at current employees’ social media pages. So, students who have already secured a job should still be wary of what they post.

Express Employment Professionals conducted a survey, and “88 percent of U.S. hiring managers say they would consider firing employees for content found in workers’ posts.”

Despite this information, though, don’t delete your social media. According to The Harris Poll’s survey, “nearly half of employers (47 percent) say that if they can’t find a job candidate online, they are less likely to call that person in for an interview.”

“Erasing all of your profiles often implies that you have something to hide,’ said Dana Case, VP of operations at MyCorporation. ‘Many LinkedIn or Instagram accounts may still show up in Google searches [after you delete them], even on a cached [hidden or inaccessible] basis.'”

The Internet is eternal. Deleting things on the Internet does not permanently get rid of them.

Instead, you should consider creating a private account where you post your personal business, and keep your public account professional, only posting positive things that won’t mess up your chances with colleges or jobs. Whether you have a private account or not, still keep in mind that a private account isn’t always as private as you think. 

Overall, using social media in a detrimental way is a very slippery slope that’s easy to slide down. It can affect not only yourself, but others as well. Everyone should be cautious of what they post, as it can haunt them in the long run.