The do’s and don’ts of social media in college


You may have caught wind of a story this week about a 22-year-old college senior at the University of Iowa who got arrested at her college’s football game for public intoxication and blew a .341 once she was behind bars, ChicagoNow reports.

Why is this news? Plenty of college kids (even underage ones, which this young woman was not) get drunk and get arrested for their antics. We can’t go around printing stories about all of them.

But this particular college senior happened to have a very active and public twitter account (@Vodka_samm) that bragged about the whole thing.

“I’m going to get .341 tattooed on me because its so epic,” she tweeted.

Oh, come on now, Vodka_samm.

She’s gained thousands of Twitter followers since the incident and the story has been picked up by Deadspin, Huffington Post, and other publication. Her mugshot is all over the Internet. When you Google her name, obviously this story is the first thing that comes up.

Employers will find out about an arrest when they do a background check, so that’s not the most concerning thing about Vodka_samm. The issue is how proud she is of her public intoxication and arrest. She’s calling herself a legend. And that’s probably not something employers want to see.

If you’re going to tweet about going out, keep your accounts private. Yes, the Internet is forever and stuff can still get out there, but you don’t want to give the impression that you are careless about your personal choices.

Don’t tweet or post on Facebook about things you wouldn’t want your parent/boss to see. If it’s not up there, there’s not a chance anyone can find it.

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