By Natalie Sturgeon

Warnings are posted everywhere about the dangers of social media. We are not to put anything on our social media profiles that we would not be okay with everyone seeing. After all, it is the Internet. College counselors everywhere tell students to monitor their profiles and make sure that they do not post anything that would display them in a bad light. Once in college, students are supposed to keep their profiles clean and delete anything that may deter future employers. With websites and phone applications such as LinkedIn, the hiring process is completely synonymous with social media.

But, what is the point of putting such a weight on social media profiles? Everyone who has a profile chooses a picture that they look the best in to display. People post pictures of places they go and things that they do just to give off a certain impression, not because they actually want to share that they have done these things. Social media profiles are by no means an indication of what a person can do or of the potential he or she has. Profiles are completely falsified to make the person something that he or she is not.

All of this is common knowledge, seeing as we all have profiles of our own. For an accurate and personal hiring process, the social media profile of a candidate should not be a deciding factor.

In general, social media has too much weight in our society today. You are hard-pressed to find people who do things for the fun of it anymore — most things are done to get an Instagram picture or to tweet about it.

Though highly superficial, social media can have benefits. Social media is a way to get the word out for certain causes or to raise awareness about current events. There is no way to completely get rid of the dominating presence of Facebook and Instagram, but with a concerted effort we can get rid of the emphasis put on apps such as these in everyday life. There is no reason why social media should be a part of hiring or the college search, because profiles are so edited there is no way to pull any actual information from them. Socially, these things are applicable and can be fun to use, but they should not be censored for the job market or for job opportunities. Social media should remain just that: social.