Maybe you are into whips and chains or maybe you are into smoking weed. That’s fine; that is your choice. But posting pictures on social networks of you smoking out of a bong is not a very responsible thing to do.

A certain level of common sense is needed when using a social network like Facebook. It is not a private website; many people, including your future employers, can view it unless you vamp up your privacy settings.

Unfortunately, like it or not, people will always be judging you on everything you say or do. Take it from me; my mom is what you would call a “Facebook creeper” and if she is watching what I say and do, then so could a potential employer.

If you want to have photographic documentation of yourself holding a Corona or smoking, put it in an album made private so no one else can see or, better yet, keep it off of the Internet altogether.

Also, be aware of what your friends are doing on Facebook. Even if you don’t find it necessary to document every party you attend or inappropriate thought that pops into your head, your friends still might be tagging you in unflattering pictures or status updates and posting inappropriate material on your wall.

Surprisingly, many people do not realize that employers do in fact look at our social network profiles. Even those who are aware of this fact may not understand how it could potentially affect their futures.

According to a recent article on OregonBusinessReport.com, “[45] percent of employers reported in a recent CareerBuilder survey that they use social networking sites to research job candidates” and “[35] percent of employers reported they have found content on social networking sites that caused them not to hire the candidate.”

Is it wrong? Maybe to some of you it is, but the fact is that employers are not going to stop just because people think it’s unfair.

Whether they know it or not, employees represent their employers and if people know you work for that company and see you doing illegal drugs, what does that do for your employer’s reputation?

When a company is interviewing you, they have maybe one hour at most to get to know you. If they cannot decide between two prospects, they might look up both names on Facebook, and as cliché as it may sound, a picture really is worth a thousand words.

Imagine that one prospective employee has a picture with their family and the other interviewee is doing a keg stand in their profile picture. Which employee do you think landed the job?

The statistics do not lie and if you are ever interested in having a successful future, clean up your social networking because there is always the chance that someone is watching.