Turn on the computer, sign on to Facebook and slip on a pair of rose-colored glasses. Your wall is strategically littered with clever status updates and any unflattering photos can simply be untagged.  It’s hard to face ourselves in the mirror everyday with the realities of life all too apparent. It’s incredibly easy to escape into a socially-ideal world, where we put out our best selves for others to see, ignoring that the rest still exists.

The concept that social networking is detrimental to our existence, possibly even addictive, is widespread in the psyche community. Some worry that technology has not only infiltrated our lives, but that it’s taking the place of person to person interaction. There’s a legitimate concern that we’ve created a playing field for deniability and avoidance of real life. However, new research shows that a few minutes with your Facebook self (and all 300 plus friends that you have) may provide a much-needed confidence boost for students.

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An experiment conducted at Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania showed that students who were asked to use Twitter as a means of discussing assignments were more engaged in their classwork than those using more conventional means. Two groups of students in pre-health professional programs were asked to share their experiences during a day spent job shadowing and to comment on reading assignments. The first group served as a control group, while the second group was asked to use Twitter to complete the assignments.

The study used a 19-question survey based on the National Survey of Student Engagement, to measure student participation once at the beginning of the semester and once at the end. All the students were first-years enrolled in seminar-style courses. Not only did the students engaged in Twitter discussions show more engagement, it also improved their grades. The Twitter group on average earned a GPA of .5 higher for the semester than the control group.

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It’s mid-August and many summer internships are starting to wrap up as the fall semester approaches. Internships are probably a college student’s best resource for finding a job after college. Keeping in touch will not only increase your chances of hearing about job openings, but you will also want to use your mentors as references. Here’s some advice on saying goodbye and keeping in touch.

1. Ask for a performance report.
When your boss isn’t too busy, ask him or her for ten minutes to sit down together. Ask them to tell you what areas you excelled in and where you could use improvement. Ask them for recommendations about classes to take or other steps you could take to further your understanding of the field.

If you don’t know already, it’s also good to find out about your mentors’ career paths. Ask them how they got their jobs and what strategies worked for them.

2. Write thank you notes.
It’s really as simple as it sounds. Be sure to hand-write each note and say something personal. Read the rest of this entry »

Facebook is a great way to keep in touch with friends and make new ones. In addition, it allows potential employers to see who you really are. Since the social-networking craze began, people seem to abuse their profiles left and right. It seems that people forget about etiquette and common sense when it comes to Facebook. Remember that those manners that mom taught you can also be applied to Internet usage. Here are some tips on how to keep your profile polite. Read the rest of this entry »

Facebook now has over 400 million active viewers and is indisputably the most popular website for social networking. While Facebook is mostly used for personal purposes, professional usage of the website is becoming increasingly more popular.

Marketing companies report that Facebook has become an extremely valuable tool for college students to reach out to recent alumni to aid in their post-graduation job hunt.

Along with rebuilding connections, surveys report that around 30% of employers are using Facebook to screen potential employees, even preferring checking out an applicant’s Facebook account as opposed to looking up their LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn is a standard professional social networking site. Unfortunately, college students are not realizing how their Facebook pages could cost them potential interviews.

Below are popular Facebook mistakes and ways to avoid them.

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