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A reminder to be cautious of what you post on social media...

Paul CaintPaul Caint Alum Member
edited December 2017 in General 3521 karma

Hey all,

So I went through my LinkedIn notifications this week and one notification I got was,

"Your profile has been viewed by people who work at the following companies:

Duke University Law School
Duke University
Stanford University"

Now I'm not saying these law schools are snooping my/our social media presence, but I'm also not saying they aren't.

There is some evidence that this is a regular practice:

http://lsatblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/law-schools-facebook-google-find-dirt.html

https://dailynorthwestern.com/2011/10/30/campus/campusarchived/law-school-admissions-use-facebook-google-to-screen-applicants-study-finds/

http://www.dailycal.org/2011/10/26/law-schools-check-digital-trail-of-applicants-more-than-other-colleges/

Just be careful!

Comments

  • akistotleakistotle Member 🍌🍌
    edited December 2017 9372 karma

    Yea.....there was a debate six months ago on this Forum on whether or not we should delete our social media accounts:
    https://7sage.com/discussion/#/discussion/11365/delete-social-media-accounts-before-applying-to-law-school/p1

  • Adam HawksAdam Hawks Alum Member
    990 karma

    @akistotle said:
    Yea.....there was a debate six months ago on this Forum on whether or not we should delete our social media accounts:
    https://7sage.com/discussion/#/discussion/11365/delete-social-media-accounts-before-applying-to-law-school/p1

    Do we have to "delete delete delete?" Or can we just set it to private and say "No, you shall not pass?"

  • goingfor99thgoingfor99th Free Trial Member
    edited December 2017 3072 karma

    I used to be on social media often but now I have no social media. The peace of mind this has afforded me has been life-changing, no exaggeration. I recommend freeing yourself from social media even if you aren't going to law school. lol

  • LSATcantwinLSATcantwin Alum Member Sage
    13286 karma

    Getting rid of Facebook was the single best thing I have ever done for myself lol

  • Mitchell-1Mitchell-1 Member
    756 karma

    I've also been getting a steady 4-5 "visitors" a week on LinkedIn since I started applying. Before then I'd maybe get 4-5 a year and most of those were family members :-p

    I searched myself just to see what else might show up. Low and behold my senior design notebook is still online... Had to read the whole thing over to make sure I didn't say anything awful.

  • Paul CaintPaul Caint Alum Member
    edited December 2017 3521 karma

    @"Adam Hawks" I just set my stuff to private. I think if you look me up on Facebook and you're not my friend you can only find 3 pictures of me and they're all wholesome ones from work or Christmas parties :smile: . I've also taken a lot of care to not have bad things on my social media, but I'm also a goody-two-shoes so I don't have a lot of baggage.

    The first thing that pops up when you Google me is my LinkedIn, and I've taken care to make sure my LinkedIn is presentable.

    I think you can have social media, just make sure it doesn't reflect poorly on your character.

  • AlexAlex Alum Member
    edited December 2017 23929 karma

    I know some employers have software to view profiles that are private. So I've always been a bit worried that even setting to private may not keep schools from snooping through your profile.

    I'll probably just deactivate my social media while I'm applying and waiting to hear back from schools. I don't have anything remotely controversial or bad, but I fear someone posting something random on my FB or tagging me in something unflattering.

  • AlexAlex Alum Member
    23929 karma

    @goingfor99th said:
    I used to be on social media often but now I have no social media. The peace of mind this has afforded me has been life-changing, no exaggeration. I recommend freeing yourself from social media even if you aren't going to law school. lol

    Yeah I haven't deleted my social media but if I sign into my FB or Insta 2-3 times a month that's a lot. You never realize how much time you waste just scrolling through other people's timelines and pictures until you get rid of it. Now, when I'm in the line at the grocery store, I talk to people like a human. Strange ... :)

  • goingfor99thgoingfor99th Free Trial Member
    3072 karma

    @"Alex Divine" said:

    @goingfor99th said:
    I used to be on social media often but now I have no social media. The peace of mind this has afforded me has been life-changing, no exaggeration. I recommend freeing yourself from social media even if you aren't going to law school. lol

    Yeah I haven't deleted my social media but if I sign into my FB or Insta 2-3 times a month that's a lot. You never realize how much time you waste just scrolling through other people's timelines and pictures until you get rid of it. Now, when I'm in the line at the grocery store, I talk to people like a human. Strange ... :)

    Yeah, social media is nothing but anxiety.

  • acsimonacsimon Alum Member
    1269 karma

    Been off fb for almost a full year now, and it's been good. It's just that it seems like such a shitty thing to do on the part of evaluaters given that fb plays multiple roles for ppl that aren't professional. It fosters and sustains this pc/puritanical type of culture that I don't think is helpful. Sigh--A.c.S

  • Leah M BLeah M B Alum Member
    8392 karma

    Yep, common discussion. I'm generally pretty cautious about what I put out in the world but will probably set my twitter to private once apps go out. Nothing scandalous, but I do have some political opinions on there so just better safe than sorry I guess. I have lots of family and work contacts that I'm Facebook friends with so I have only rarely posted there for a long time, and always approve anything I'm tagged in. I'll probably raise the privacy settings a bit anyway though.

  • tylerdschreur10tylerdschreur10 Alum Member
    1465 karma

    @acsimon said:
    Been off fb for almost a full year now, and it's been good. It's just that it seems like such a shitty thing to do on the part of evaluaters given that fb plays multiple roles for ppl that aren't professional. It fosters and sustains this pc/puritanical type of culture that I don't think is helpful. Sigh--A.c.S

    I totally agree...but we have to jump through their hoops :[

    I will say that my impression, right or wrong, has been that schools aren't rejecting applicants because of a pic with a beer, or a pro-life poster, it's more in case of serious stuff. If your facebook isn't full of xenophobia or links to radical cults, you're probably fine.

    Key word "probably", I'm still going to delete mine, because the value of facebook just doesn't justify the risk.

  • goingfor99thgoingfor99th Free Trial Member
    edited December 2017 3072 karma

    Schools just want to know who you are. If you are volunteering things to the public online, you should be comfortable with the idea of anyone and everyone seeing whatever it is you volunteer. If you look like an ass on your Facebook, well then stop that! We all make decisions; we all know decisions have consequences.

  • tringo335tringo335 Alum Member
    3679 karma

    I plan on deactivating everything before applying then turning it back on. I'd love to go completely off social media but I think I'm addicted! :( @"Alex Divine" @acsimon how'd you do it??? lol

  • kshutes13kshutes13 Member
    634 karma

    A lot of my friends have just changed their social media names to really absurd things so they don't show up when you look them up (i.e. everything they've ever been tagged in will now have a different name tagged). I'm not sure if that really tackles the problem though... ?

    I personally kept mine in hopes that they lurk me a little LOL. I did a lot of charity work in university, and all the stuff I've done & promoted is basically my entire FB profile spanning the last few years.

  • AlexAlex Alum Member
    23929 karma

    @tringo335 said:
    I plan on deactivating everything before applying then turning it back on. I'd love to go completely off social media but I think I'm addicted! :( @"Alex Divine" @acsimon how'd you do it??? lol

    By having no life and socializing on here and TLS lmao ;)

  • acsimonacsimon Alum Member
    1269 karma

    I think of it as kinda like just having a dating website profile after you've already started dating someone. Almost inevitably, you're tempted to check it every now and again if you just let it sit; if you delete it, however, the temptation is much less (and if it lingers, maybe the person you're datin' ain't for u:).

    So personally, I don't see how ppl just check it every three months or so. It easy for me to just put it in the back of my mind provided that I deactivate it so that's what I did. There are downsides, obviously, but shrug--A.c.S

  • _oshun1__oshun1_ Alum Member
    edited December 2017 3652 karma

    I deactivated my facebook & searched myself on google and pipl.com to see if any random profiles exist out there and deleted all my random blank pages which I logged on to once and never used. I even went so far as to ask someone on tumblr to delete a specific post. For some reason an underwear picture that she reblogged which was originally posted by some porn tumblr, showed up when you googled my name. My name was nowhere to be found on those blogs but I didnt want that confusing admissions.

    PS - when you deactivate your Facebook, if you have the FB messenger app on your phone, you can still message people.

  • _oshun1__oshun1_ Alum Member
    3652 karma

    @kshutes13 said:
    A lot of my friends have just changed their social media names to really absurd things so they don't show up when you look them up (i.e. everything they've ever been tagged in will now have a different name tagged). I'm not sure if that really tackles the problem though... ?

    The problem with that is you can likely still find them by looking up their email address or phone number.

  • fambam24fambam24 Member
    edited December 2017 215 karma

    wow, I searched myself...I didn't know that people can find out your exact age and hometown through different sites

  • AlexAlex Alum Member
    23929 karma

    @"surfy surf" said:

    PS - when you deactivate your Facebook, if you have the FB messenger app on your phone, you can still message people.

    No way!? I had no idea -- I may have to keep my messenger app in that case!

    Thank you :)

  • lsatplaylistlsatplaylist Member
    5249 karma

    Thanks for the links. Hoping we keep this thread active. It's important.

  • Paul CaintPaul Caint Alum Member
    3521 karma

    @fambam24

    Yeah, and if you're registered to vote it's easy to find your exact address as well thanks to online voter files.

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