As I begin building my first website, my E-Portfolio, I am constantly aware of the advantages of having a social media presence. Many jobs like for employees to have a presence out in the web. Often times an account on Linkedin can help a person network and get job offers. Personally in my profession, teaching, administrations often requires teacher to have websites tfbo supplement and complement material taught in the classroom. Most districts post job openings online and required posting resumes online. A personal E-Portfolio can be used to show a potential employer a sample of our work.

But reaching out into the ether can also have disastrous results as well. I just last week heard the story of Gerod Roth , a man living in Atlanta. He recently posted a selfie with the child of one of his coworkers in the background. at first it seemed an innocent enough post. It soon took a dark turn, however, when his friends began posting racist comments in response to the post. Within days Gerod was fired from his employer and at least one of his friends, Emily Irene Red, was fired from her job as well.

The Most frightening part about your online profile is how you may never know what it has affected. I recently read an article published in 2013 by the New York Times about online profiles and college admissions. Schools have begun to consider an applicant’s profile. Whats worse is most schools have no official policy about looking into online profiles. Because of this, if you rejected based on information on your profile, you may never be told. Now imaging that scenario when applying for your dream job. Something you posted in your youthful exuberance could haunt you for sometime.

And do not think just wiping all those party photos from your profiles is the end of it. With technology today, nothing may be erased forever. there may exist a digital copy sitting on a server somewhere. Have you ever seen those screenshots of conversations on Facebook? Even if you erase something who is to say it was not screenshotted and passed around?

I have a friend that was complaining to some neighborhood parents about the importance of children wearing helmets when they ride a bike. Now prudent or not, my friend posted her anger on Facebook. She was friends with no one in her neighborhood on Facebook, but within a day her children were sent home from several houses and told they could no longer play with their friends.

It took a face to face conversation for my friend to find out what had happened. A third party was friends with both my friend and the mother on Facebook. My friend’s post spread like wildfire through the neighborhood.The backlash was severe, if not childish. My friend’s children are no longer welcome at any home in the neighborhood because they were the only ones that had helmets, so every child that did not have a helmet, their parents took offense.

While this incident had no effect on job prospects, it does illustrate the dark side of internet profiles. Information that at the moment you think is local and private, or say in jest may become far more important in the future, and be seen be people you don’t want to see it. 92% of employers now use social media in some form or another to recruit employees. This may be a Twitter handle for job posting or, as in the case of many educators, a school superintendent asking you to pull up your Facebook profile so they can see who you are online.

Face it, social media is here to stay and it can be an awesome resource to networking, social activism, fundraising or simply introducing yourself to the world. But tread lightly! you don’t want to be sitting in an interview for your dream job and have to explain why there is a photo of you doing something inappropriate during your last spring break. And no one is saying don’t do those crazy, immature things that kids and young adults do, just take a second and think about it before to plaster it across the unforgiving web.