Social networking has become a prominent issue within the last few years. Recently a high school teacher was suspended from her job because she posted some rude comments about her students on a public blog.

She did not name any specific students but she did offend the parents of the Philadelphian class. The question is, should she be suspended or fired for this by the school? Does the school have any business examining her blogs?

In order to answer these questions, the purpose of social networking should be examined.

[Social networking has been defined as an], “activity in which a group of two or more people…get together online in the hopes of meeting new people..,” stated Connor Jordan, a Senior at Placer High School.

If this is so, then why would someone put insulting comments about those they work for or teach on a public blog? Online sites like these should be used to tell ones friends about the positive and negative aspects of ones life, not to post insulting things about other people. Obviously, the teacher doesn’t enjoy her job or care about her students, therefore she should be fired.

“If you’re stupid enough to post personal information on the internet that may harm your reputation then you deserve whatever comes your way,” stated Jordan.

This can be applied to everyone when it comes to being hired for a job or getting accepted into a college.

“You choose how to present yourself. So there should be no reason why anyone should be prevented from profiling you based on your social networking page,” stated Michael Balaguy, a senior at Placer High School.

People use social networking to display who they are. If an employer is thinking about hiring someone, it would make sense for them to want to find out what kind of a person they are dealing with. If someone were to put that they were fired from working somewhere else on their page the employer would know that hiring the person could be a bad idea.

Employers should also be able to look up a current employee’s page whenever they want. If the employee has written something that could harm the reputation of the company they are working for, then why shouldn’t the employer fire them? If the employee doesn’t like the job, and is going to harm business through such postings, then why should they even have the job?

“Employers should be able to fire people based on their social networking page depending on what is said and how it affects the company,” stated Vera Dorofeyev, a senior.

So, if someone posts a blog that is not harmful to the company they work for or to anyone’s reputation, the employer should simply move on because the page is no longer any of their business.

Collages should also be able to look at peoples social networking pages or blogs because they may be able to find out if a student is serious about doing well and using scholarship money wisely. If the student obviously isn’t serious about what they are doing then why would the collage want to waste money on them? There may be someone else out there who is serious about getting a good education.

If employers and collages do start looking on people’s pages, just think of what good it could bring. People will start cleaning up their acts online and making their pages more professional. There wouldn’t be as much junk on the internet because people will want their pages to look good.

People could use this to their advantage by creating pages that make them look good. If people were smart they would use the knowledge that their pages could be looked at to make themselves seem professional and organized. These people would have yet another way to persuade possible employers and collages to accept them as worth having.

Public sites where people post information about themselves for their friends to see, and for whomever else who gets on the site to see, are called public for a reason. When someone such as the teacher posts something that can be considered harmful on a site where anyone can see it, they should expect something to backfire. I would caution people to be wise and watch what they put online so that they do not have to deal with the problems that can come with bad posts. Set yourself up to look good to your friends and to everyone else who may look at your posts.