IT WAS A JOKE

                  Attention, everyone who read the article 'Fatal' Facebook Offenses -- It was an April Fools' joke!
                  That's right, you no longer need to worry about all that time you've been spending on Facebook recently, how many emoticons you use or all those random friends you've accumulated.
                  So take a deep breath, close your eyes for a moment, and let that sink in: It was all a joke.
                  If you went and deleted posts and pictures that seemed questionable, is that a bad thing?
                  Because, while the article was fictional, it's true that colleges and employers care what you post online.
                  I recently talked with Mike Pesce, who works as a secondary education coordinator for a Jamison-based organization called the Network of Victim Assistance.  And while he assured me that your Farmville use and chat speak won't hurt your college chances, other things on your Facebook can.
                 When I asked him how much of what we post online colleges can see, Pesce answered with a blunt "all of it."  He said it doesn't matter what your Facebook security settings are or how you try to get around it:  If you post it online, it's basically the world's to see.
                  According to Pesce, just the other week, he was talking to a girl who had been denied admission to four different schools based on what she had on her Facebook ---- four!  Although he never said what it was she had on her pages, or which universities denied her, the fact remains:  What you post onlinehas the potential to impact your life.
                  It's a growing trend among colleges to check on potential students' Facebook usage.  Pesce said that often, a college will ask you to "friend" them on Facebook (and don't think about lying and saying you don't have a Facebook ---- it's easy to check).  Especially in the more elite schools, what you have online can severly impact whether or not you are accepted.
                 Many colleges will also do a quick Google search ---- so make sure nothing incriminating will come up.
                 "As an interviewer for Harvard College, I do occasionally Google students I'm interviewing," Allison Otis blogged in Feburary at www.quora.com/Allison-Otis ."  "So that will turn up Facebook profiles or anything else that is public.  As far as I know, we are not given specific instructions to exclude it.
                 "I think it's always better to be safe than sorry----when you apply to college you spend such a long time crafting an image through your applications and essays that to be careless about your online data is just silly."
                 In the same blog post, Otis acknowledged that a Facebook profile could influence her before she interviews a candiate, even if she tries not to let it.
                "If you care about your college career, one of the best things you can do is Google yourself, then pull anything off that you wouldn't voluntarily show your parents' friends," she wrote.
                As far as what will or will not hurt you to post on Facebook, it seems that minor offenses like cursing aren't terrible as long they're not too extensive.
                (Basically, if you dropped a bad word or two into a couple statuses, it's nothing to sweat over.)    
                But any picture that could be misconstrued as something inappropriate can be extremely harmful.  Having pictures of you holding a red cup, whether it had alcohol in it or not, is a big no-no, for instance.  Really, anything related to partying, drinking,smoking, etc., should stay off of your Facebook.
                Colleges also don't like to see any form of harassment going on.  Keep statuses about that crazy b*&# that you want to die to yourself; they'll come back to haunt you.
                 Complaining about school is all right; colleges understand that it's more or less part of every high school experience.  But keep posts about looking forward to college partying or drinking, etc., off of the web.  Colleges don't wantto seethat all you're interested in is partying it up.
                  Basically, Pesce's message was this:  Think about what you put online before you post it.  What's so easy to put on the Internet is almost impossible to remove, and it's going to be attached to your name forever, floating around in cyberspace.
                  If you wouldn't want colleges, or your future bosses to see it, it's probably not a good idea to post it.
                 But......Yes, the article about colleges revoking scholarships for common (and harmless) Facebook trends was an April Fools' gag.  But what you post on Faacebook absolutely can influence your future.  An expert warns of online activity that really could keep you out of college.