This week, hundreds of nude pictures of celebrities were released on the Internet. Hackers got into personal accounts of cellphones, iCloud and emails to steal these pictures. This is a perfect example to show that everything that goes online or potentially just onto your cellphone can never truly be deleted.

Once it goes on the Internet, it stays there forever.

This is an important concept for ISU students to remember when putting images or information up on social media. Nowadays, employers will look at your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other pages to see what kind of person they are hiring. Chances are, if your social media presence is not up to par, you will not be getting a second interview or even a call.

When you search your name on Google, the first thing to come up will most likely be your social media accounts. It is important that there are not photos of underage drinking on Facebook or tweets about how drunk you were last weekend. As technology advances, companies are learning how to dig deeper into your social media accounts. Even things that have been deleted are able to be found.

Hackers are getting better at what they do. There have been scandals with Target, with the celebrity nude photos and even with Iowa State’s IT program. Even things we think are private, such as the pictures and messages on our cellphones and emails, can still be hacked. It is even possible for people to hack into Snapchat and see pictures that have already expired.

Online security and firewalls are not keeping up with the speed of hackers. They can log into our accounts and cellphones and see things that we believe to be private. People who are keeping drunk photos on their Facebook and sending nudes via Snapchat are not safe. They are still susceptible to being hacked and having their private information spread across the Internet.

People are watching.

There is more on the line than your college job, bad standing in your greek house or misrepresenting your current club or organization. The information you put on the Internet can follow you for the rest of your life and make a significant impact on your ability to land a job after graduation. Your social media accounts could make the difference between your future career and not having a career at all.

The solution is simple. Start cleaning up your social media accounts. Don’t put some things on your accounts in the first place. If you wouldn’t feel comfortable having your grandparents see something, you probably would not be comfortable having an employer see it, either. Jennifer Lawrence is a perfect example of someone who is idolized by people all over the world. With one slip up, however, many of her supporters have vanished and she is getting attention on areas that she probably doesn’t want attention on.

A clean social media account can help in making sure that the image you have portrayed is professional and mature. It would be detrimental to your career if nude pictures were to arise while applying for jobs or internships. Keep employers’ attention focused on the positives and not the things that are going to bring your reputation down in the workplace.

The Internet has the power to change our lives — let’s make sure that it is changed for the better.