Due to the advancement of modern technology, communication with friends has become easier than ever. Social media is something we all use every day instinctively, whether it be Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, etc.; we are always on it.

Your social media footprint is everything you post or have ever posted on social media websites and apps. While it may not seem like an issue, your social media footprint can actually be harmful to you because once you put a post out there, anyone that has Internet access and knows your name can access them at any time.

Finding someone’s social media accounts is as easy as one Google search. For example, the first result that pops up when I search my name on google is “Chase Clark Profiles | Facebook.” This is why managing your social media accounts is important for your privacy.

Posting on social media can be useful in many ways, such as organizing events, sharing opinions and many more, but it can be harmful in many ways as well. For example, when you go to interview for a job, many times the employer will go through your social media profiles after the interview to get a better judgement of your character. Even if the interview is great, if they find something controversial or offensive on your social media, they most likely won’t want someone with those views on their staff.

This can be the same with colleges and universities. When you apply to a college or university, they will almost always look through your social media to see what kind of person you are, which can be hurtful for your chances if you post some offensive content.

Posting offensive content on social media can also get you in trouble in school. We have seen it more than once here at South with students posting racist material on social media, some even with national attention on the New York Daily Post. These posts resulted in the suspensions of the students, but that’s not the only trouble they’ll find in the long run. That type of incident could stay with you forever, whether you’re applying to college or a job or whatever it is you’re trying to do, those posts are out there for the world to see with one simple Google search.

Managing your social media footprint can be done in many different, simple ways. For example, many seniors will change the names associated with their profiles when they apply to college or even go as far as deleting their accounts to eliminate any chance of the college seeing them.

Another way to protect your accounts is to make them private, which hides the content from the public and only makes it available to your friends and people with permission. However, this does not make them completely secure, as someone with permission could easily show your content to someone without.

Although there are ways to protect the content you post on social media, you can never really be sure that unwanted people won’t see it. This being said, the best way to ensure no one sees the content you want to post is to not post it at all.