Colleges and Employers Checking Social Media Essay Sample

When applying for a job that you are going to want for the rest of your working life, you might want to be careful about what you and are going to post on social media as it is public and can be noticed by everyone. Some people think that it is wrong that the employers can do a social media check and see what you do on your off time. But I agree with the employers because they are representing their business and you don’t want that person to post ridiculous things representing your company. I believe that peoples opinions shouldn’t be a deciding factor on whether they get the job or not. 
Colleges can also check your social media and decide if they want you in or out of their college. If you have anything rude or racial posted that can bring up a red flag on your college application, and then get rejected. “Admissions counselors who are checking social networking sites are mostly looking for content that people would find objectionable like racist comments, or would raise concerns about the student” (Marlyn, McGrath). I agree with what McGrath said because having racist things on your social media account can reflect on what college decides to accept them.
People that don’t think that colleges and or jobs can look at your social media are just not correct because it can reflect on their business. But if you have a private account that only certain people are allowed to see then it is a different story. “The Websites privacy settings allowed users to share information as broadly or as narrowly as they liked, either with entire networks or with a limited number of participants”(Sarah, Roy). I agree with Sara Roy on this because a user that post their content to the website isn’t showing it to random people that they don’t know but they get to decide who gets to see it. Colleges and jobs should only be able to check your social media if it’s public to all users.
Politics should be kept out of the deciding factor if they get the job or make the college because that job or college would break the rule of freedom of speech. Any hate speech can be a deciding factor because that will reflect on the job and or college. “Online background checks aren’t limited to admissions decisions. According to a report released April 29th by the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), 26 percent of colleges use web searches to scrutinize candidates for special programs or scholarships. In all these cases, the intent was to protect the school from potential embarrassment” (Smith, Joyce). I agree with what this report is saying because most schools look at social media to protect their schools from being ashamed or embarrassed about letting the inappropriate users into the school.
Colleges or jobs shouldn’t be able to look at what you post unless you have your social media page on public but if it is on public they have every right to see what you post and decide whether you are qualified for the position or even be a part of the college. Colleges shouldn’t reject you for your political views because that is what the person believes in unless they have any racist or homophobic comments or post. There are two different sides of this argument but if you have a public account it defeats the purpose of them checking because nobody can check your social media so why can’t colleges or jobs.