I'm very sorry about your cat, Epic.

My twitter feed is ablaze with SCOTUS news. It all seems too horrible.

Wow, Allyson! Could you convince her to just make it non-public? Or change her name soncolleges can't find her?

I have bluntly schooled some of my 16 year old mentee's friends on the topic. Hell, I've schooled her. Bottom effective line is to be blunt honest, tell them while YOU might be ok with it, this is their image they are sculpting, and the viewers are old fogeys who will fucking judge them harshly. Their social life does them no favors. Plus, you don't want to share your personal life with potential employers, that gives them control . Control your image.

the SCOTUS decision is depressing. I kind of expected it because it seems like the people of Georgia really want to kill Troy Davis. When you have that much against you, it can be difficult to survive.

Allyson, I would just tell her "Everyone googles everyone else, including college applicant review boards. What sort of impression do you think your current online self is going to make?"

Both my parents and I friended Ben right away, and he's very conscious of it. He's not really the type to gross on Facebook anyway (every time he catches me swearing, he says I owe him a dollar), but it's nice to know it won't be a problem.

Jake, on the other hand, I had to pointedly tell to make a filter since my brother, his uncle, actually defriended him for the language and the drug references. So proud. Ugh.

I WILL make it to Seattle one day, and dress up, and party with Jilli. I will, damn it.

And it will be SO FUN.

Allyson, that's a scary, scary story. I had not heard that before.

Also, WRT your niece, yeah, if she has more than 25 friends, she can change her name on FB. Most of my ex-students who've friended me have pseuds -- it's hard to figure out that LaDEE J_T STARFL*ER XOXO is really Jane Thomas from my ENG IV class.

And she should do it. Really.

LaDEE J_T STARFL*ER XOXO

Damn it! That name is taken?

Well, I might as well stick with my real one, then.

I'm thinking to tell Taylor that when it comes time for college applications, delete her account and start over, focussing on school. There is nothing bad there, just teenage angst and drama. But really, start afresh. Don't bare your personal life.

In 2009, a poll was taken of 400+ college's admission's officers. Only 9% admit to using social networking to evaluate candidates and of those 9% only 33% state that it had a negative impact on their decisions. (Also, interestingly, of that 9%, 31% say that it had a positive impact, so keep posting about your volunteer work!).

So 12 students weren't admitted to a college because of stuff on social networking sites. The problem is not as dire as people think. At All.

Nevertheless, given that it's relatively easy to manage your online presence by not posting stupid shit, or setting privacy tighter, or using a psued, it seems really stupid not to.

(I know this because two weeks ago, my students did a synthesis essay/research piece on the use of social network stuff to make admission or hiring decisions).

ETA: Hee! I found the link of the source: [link]

I'm more freaked that so many applicants try to friend admissions people!