Some colleges checking students' social-networking sites

When I post something online, I assume someone is going to use some kind of tool to amalgamate all of the information I've posted to various sites - if not now, then in the future. That means if I post my hometown to a chat board and my job title to a business site, someone knows both are about me.

You use your own judgement when to bend the rules for this, but for example I don't post my real name or anything more specific than city for location. My blog is only for people who know me primarily online, and I use a different nickname there.

It doesn't take any effort to keep things locked down like this; you just have to realize that if you post something for everyone to see, anyone can see it, and finding this stuff is easier than ever.

I think awareness about your online public image becoming a part of society's judgmental process is a good thing. Meaning that people should be careful about what they post online.

ONE BIG FREAKING PROBLEM - there is no identity system that is reliable, wide scale, and in use on these social networking sites today - and photoshop can be put to wicked use. It would be terrible if anyone was judged based on an impersonation page that was done as a joke, as satire, or maliciously.

So, is it the student's responsibility to check every search engine and social networking sites to see if they have been impersonated, if so, is there a real reconciliation process in place if they are being slandered??

Thus, it is just as irresponsible to judge someone based on unconfirmed personal data as the idiots that carelessly post and believe that easily searchable public data poses no harm to them.