facebook-has pictures of me drinking, and bad wall posts, should I delete it?

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fant 2

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I don't want to. I use it for communication purposes, but I had heard that even if you have it set completely private, it can still be accessed through background checks, etc. What are your opinions?
 
fant 2 said:
I don't want to. I use it for communication purposes, but I had heard that even if you have it set completely private, it can still be accessed through background checks, etc. What are your opinions?
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delete the photos and posts or untag yourself if you can't delete a picture. Then make sure you keep it clean... maybe ask friends to not post on your wall if they can't do it appropriately
 
Friend request adcom members so you can mirror their interests, favorite books, food and movies during interviews - make facebook your friend, not your enemy
 
Simply put, anything on the internet is fair game for everyone to see. My philosophy is, if you wouldn't want your grandma, future employer, or your future spouse's parents to see it don't put it up.

You don't have to delete your whole facebook, just take down the "inappropriate" things. You can just delete all your current wall posts, and if you check the feature that doesn't allow people to tag you in pictures, no one will know you're in them. Just delete the other pics.

Hope that helps!
 
fant 2 said:
I don't want to. I use it for communication purposes, but I had heard that even if you have it set completely private, it can still be accessed through background checks, etc. What are your opinions?
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Actually as long as you know how FB privacy works you can keep all these horrible pictures on your page without "most people" seeing. The best thing for you to do is definitely keep a PC profile picture. All the stories you hear in the news about people getting fired for stuff they had on their facebook/myspace page are people who didn't understand privacy.

Make sure you go into your privacy settings and set "only friends" if you are paranoid. Everything to only friends. You will probably have to untag yourself because your privacy doesn't equal your friends' privacy settings.

This will take some time, as facebook doesn't want you to do this and has made it annoying to do so.
 
I doubt adcoms will care enough to go searching for you on fb.
on a side note: please don't be one of those annoying clowns who takes a gazillion carefully posed pics while drinking to show the world how "cool" they are. Everyone drinks, it doesn't make you cool. I've been drinking since i was 7, nobody cares.* If these pictures were taken without your knowledge, stop hanging around photography majors.

*fabricated for emphasis
 
bold text said:
I doubt adcoms will care enough to go searching for you on fb.
on a side note: please don't be one of those annoying clowns who takes a gazillion carefully posed pics while drinking to show the world how "cool" they are. Everyone drinks, it doesn't make you cool. I've been drinking since i was 7, nobody cares.* If these pictures were taken without your knowledge, stop hanging around photography majors.

*fabricated for emphasis
Click to expand...

No joke, I can't stand when people put up pictures of themselves trashed. Stupidest thing you can do.
 
Just change your privacy settings so that only your friends can see your wall/pics/etc. If any ADCOM happens to add you (lol), just put them on a limited profile. You could also just delete everything if you want to be extremely safe.
 
like others have said, make it private so only friends can view your wall etc. That is all I did, and I didn't have any issues getting into schools. A few friends of mine made their facebook boring and got rid of their wall and everything, basically it was a twitter with a picture... I don't really think that is necessary.
 
fant 2 said:
I don't want to. I use it for communication purposes, but I had heard that even if you have it set completely private, it can still be accessed through background checks, etc. What are your opinions?
Click to expand...

Delete and/or un-tag anything that you would not be willing to show to a dean of admissions in person, and change Facebook's privacy setting for pics/videos to allow tags of you to be seen only by you (for those overzealous taggers).
 
I don't actually have a Facebook (I know, I know...I'm Cro-Magnon), but can't you just change your name to prevent them from Googling you?
 
morning said:
I don't actually have a Facebook (I know, I know...I'm Cro-Magnon), but can't you just change your name to prevent them from Googling you?
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You can. Facebook has an option to disable indexing by search engines, but even then, I've known a few people who changed their last name when they were trying to get into some program or another.
 
It is not just a matter of privacy settings. Facebook has deals with official background check groups to unlock those privacy settings.
 
saw a news report. I think it was Fox news. No evidence past that. I'm sure FB keeps that information on the DL as much as possible.
 
What most of my friends have done is change their last name. They usually put their middle name as the last name, so John Jacob Jinglehymer is now just John Jingle. That and privacy settings and not setting your profile pic to a picture of you passed out on the floor or something and you should be good. 👍
 
I've set it so only my friends can search me on facebook, would it hurt me if a adcom looked for me but couldn't find me?
 
fant 2 said:
saw a news report. I think it was Fox news. No evidence past that. I'm sure FB keeps that information on the DL as much as possible.
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Umm, no offense, but Fox News = most unreliable bullcrap "news" source EVER. Just sayin'.

To each his own, though. I personally prefer the Weekly World News for my fake news stories 🙄
 
suitup said:
I've set it so only my friends can search me on facebook, would it hurt me if a adcom looked for me but couldn't find me?
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LOL seriously?

Maybe it shows that you're not up to date with the latest social media websites. Better get a Twitter account too while you're at it. Tweet your love for each med school!!
 
bold text said:
I doubt adcoms will care enough to go searching for you on fb.
on a side note: please don't be one of those annoying clowns who takes a gazillion carefully posed pics while drinking to show the world how "cool" they are. Everyone drinks, it doesn't make you cool. I've been drinking since i was 7, nobody cares.* If these pictures were taken without your knowledge, stop hanging around photography majors.

*fabricated for emphasis
Click to expand...

7? that's the youngest I've ever heard haha
 
teddy bear doc said:
Umm, no offense, but Fox News = most unreliable bullcrap "news" source EVER. Just sayin'.

To each his own, though. I personally prefer the Weekly World News for my fake news stories 🙄
Click to expand...

They have extremely skewed viewpoints where they actually can put a spin on things, but I haven't seen them lie on their non-political stories like this yet
 
fant 2 said:
It is not just a matter of privacy settings. Facebook has deals with official background check groups to unlock those privacy settings.
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I'm going to call bull****
 
either keep it clean or change your last or full name. Honestly though, they really don't have time to search for 10,000 people on fb. Also, edit your privacy settings so that you're unsearchable.


It's REALLY not that hard. Besides, why do you want pictures of yourself trashed for all the world to see?
 
Changing the last name sounds like a good idea on the surface, but if Facebook is allowing corporate overrides regarding their privacy settings, I'm sure they're able to view cache; even though Facebook isn't static, they may be able to see if you changed your name. Best bet is to keep it clean.
 
Braun08 said:
Changing the last name sounds like a good idea on the surface, but if Facebook is allowing corporate overrides regarding their privacy settings, I'm sure they're able to view cache; even though Facebook isn't static, they may be able to see if you changed your name. Best bet is to keep it clean.
Click to expand...

This is a lot of effort to look up an applicant. The likelihood of an adcom spending time out of their already full schedule to look up applicants on facebook is a little silly. Not to mention going through special measures if the applicant has changed their name or set up stringent privacy settings.
 
I don't think you have to worry about the "old folks" on the adcom as much as your student interviewers. I've occasionally facebooked my interviewees. I know more facebook literate student interviewers who check everyone. It's mostly curiosity on our end, but if someone found something negative, (I never really have, not a huge issue, I think) they might have a hard time deciding how to take it.

You all might find this interesting, this year's ethics essay contest for the AAMC is on this exact topic... finding out something negative about an applicant on facebook, and if it should affect admissions.
 
suitup said:
I've set it so only my friends can search me on facebook, would it hurt me if a adcom looked for me but couldn't find me?
Click to expand...
LOL WHAT??

Since when has having a Facebook page been included in the criteria for admission to med school?
 
I deactivated my facebook account almost 2 years ago, went back, signed in and everything was there as if I had never left---creepy.

Found out how to delete the account, which is not easy, and it will take 2 weeks...2 weeks!!!
There is something fishy about facebook.
 
Hope0913 said:
yes delete all of that stuff. Here's one reason why, here's another article and finally this last article. Hopefully you won't let stupid stuff like that jeopardize your life.

If I were you I'd delete all of those photos, un-tag myself, and then deactivate my account for the time being
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addo said:
I deactivated my facebook account almost 2 years ago, went back, signed in and everything was there as if I had never left---creepy.

Found out how to delete the account, which is not easy, and it will take 2 weeks...2 weeks!!!
There is something fishy about facebook.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I got rid of my FB about a month ago. My privacy settings actually got CHANGED, and I log out after every use. It was a huge about a month ago, and I read (can't find the article) that the most searched for topic on google was "how to delete my facebook." Deactivating it does nothing. You still have to search on how to delete it, follow the instructions, and even then it takes two weeks to delete, like the above says. And if you accidentally log in, it resets and you have to do it again.

Anyone can type in something random and probably find a wall post you've made. That being said.. I doubt adcoms will look at your FB, but I'd still delete what you can. Who knows who's looking at you. Eventually people have to realize that no matter what, the internet is not private.
 
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