"They loved your GPA, then they saw your Tweets" Review

 This article was discussing the fairly recent concept of college admission officers browsing applicant's social media, and the controversy behind it. According to this article, one hoping to apply to a college should pay close attention to making sure everything they post under their name isn't questionable. We should pay attention to our supposed 'digital footprint', as if they browse our social media and find something they deem negative, it could hinder our chances into being accepted into that college. Many people believe it to be a practice that could be vindicated as typical, while other people believe the practice to be immoral. 

One of the statements that surprised me was in paragraph 6, "30 percent of admissions officers said they had discovered information online that had negatively affected an applicant's prospects." It also mentioned the general visitation of applicant's media as a get-to-know-you has been happening five percent more frequently this year than the last. This surprised me due to the fact that it's becoming more common and occurrent- prior to that, I had assumed that it wasn't a usual thing; that it was infrequent enough for me and my peers to not stress too much on what we post. I wasn't aware that it was relatively normal- and happening more and more. As technology advances, it seems probable that by the time I apply for college, it will be a tradition for all college admission officers. Upon that realization, it surprised me how serious a single digital comment could be. 

While reading the article, a quote in paragraph 10 made me begin to question some moral ideas. The quote read, "If colleges find seemingly troubling material online, they may not necessarily notify the applicants involved." To me, that poses the question whether this practice is truly effective. If the applicant is not involved or contacted, how would the admission officers know for certain whether there was a justification? Or an explanation? Their accusation based on a post could be completely derived from misconception, and their misconception would never be understood if they refuse to discuss with the applicant. Does this not seem slightly unfair? 

After reading this article, I've surely given more thought to what I post. Personally, I didn't have too much of trouble keeping things appropriate initially, but now I will definitely make sure to keep a close eye on it. I don't completely agree with the inspections of social media as I think it biased, however it is the truth, and I will account for it, as getting rejected from a college for a mere online post seems quite unappealing.