Two weeks into the new semester and things are beginning to fall into place. Everyone is getting back into the swing of class schedules, club meetings, old friends and new professors.

Another thing that students are getting back to is Facebook. Just in case anyone on this campus doesn’t know about Facebook, (which I seriously doubt), the web site has become a national craze for college and high school students.

Designed to be a directory that allows people and social groups at schools to connect and keep in touch online, anyone with an e-mail address ending in ‘edu’ is able to join the site and post not only their classes, interests, and photos, but also background and contact information.

As happens many times though, things designed with good intentions sometimes have negative consequences. As many students across the nation are finding out, releasing too much personal information may not only cause harm to them but also jeopardize their future.

Posting personal information online has become tremendously popular. Because Facebook feels like a small community limited to the campus, many students post online what in times past they would have only admitted to their closest friends. And once something is posted on the Internet, anyone, from parents to school administrators to police has access to that information.

At many universities, administrators routinely log on to check in and see what students are up to, and if they see any evidence of illegal or improper behavior, such as drug use or underage drinking, they call the police. Often, it’s the police themselves who are monitoring the site. And happening more often, recruiters are signing up for an account using their alumni address and then checking on any applications from students who attended their alma mater. Needless to say, if they see anything that doesn’t meet whatever their standard may be, that applicant most likely will not get the job.

Sad as it may be, nothing posted anywhere on the Internet is private.

Posting things online and checking in to see what friends are up to is fun, but it might be best to keep to yourself anything that you might not want the biggest gossip and the rest of the world to know. Once it’s online, it isn’t private anymore.