Since many schools and companies have begun to view future students and employees on Facebook and to determine whether to accept them from what they see, we must question if this is appropriate or not. Should your private life be taken into account as you apply to better your life?

Does anyone have the right to judge you by what they see on your Facebook page? Some might say, no way because it would be an invasion of privacy.

I’m going to disagree with that, because Facebook is pretty public and if you want to remain private, adjust your settings. If you are between the ages of 16 and 30, you should be tech-savvy enough to change the settings to what you want.

An invasion of privacy isn’t really the case if you are putting the information out there for everyone to see. I mean, think about it. What if a future employer sees you, in person, stealing from a local store?

Is that an invasion of privacy, or is it a reasonable cause for that person not to get hired?

I could understand if private investigators were sent out to stalk applicants. Then, it would not be a very justified thing to do. However, if you are putting information on the Internet, then you are asking for it to be looked at.

Someone may argue that they post things on Facebook only for their friends to look at, and my response would be: How many of the ‘friends’ on Facebook, do you actually talk to?

If you really had 1,200 friends than it would be quite impressive, but I’m sure only a select few really know who you are. The fact is, if future employers and colleges find it necessary to keep their institutions in shape, then they have every right to do a little research on who you really are.

A resume allows companies to see your accomplishments, and what experience you have under your belt. But, someone can easily doctor up a resume to sound extremely qualified with the right touches.

However, if someone from the company logs onto Facebook to check up on you, and they see pictures of you at a party doing drugs, I think it would be safe to say that you are not the kind of person they are looking to trust.

Although pictures can be misconstrued and mistaken for something it really isn’t, I would say it’s a safe bet that the majority of the time it really is what it looks like.

Many people say that no one has the right to judge their lives. But I can relate to the schools and companies that want that background knowledge of these applicants before making them a part of the family.

A resume does not speak for who that person is, and we all know interviews are as fake as conversations can be. Checking someone’s Facebook, in my opinion, is a pretty decent way of learning about who they truly are.

I personally have no problem with anyone looking at my Facebook, but maybe that is because I am not hiding anything.

Matthew Davis is a sophomore writing major from Philadelphia.