Is There a Consequence to Posting on Social Media? Job seekers and prospective students have always been under a significant amount of scrutiny. The competition for finding the right job or getting into the school has never been more fierce, and the criteria by which these employers and institutions of higher education are basing their decisions on are getting more stringent as time goes on. Part of the reason for the increase in these standards is that schools and employers have greater means in which to access much more information about people. What used to take weeks of expensive research can now be done with a few keystrokes on a computer. Employers can find out an applicant's credit score, criminal history, or anything else they would like to know. Today I simply typed my name into Google and I was given results that said what year I graduated high school, my address, phone number, court records, prior jobs, and of course, links to my Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts. So after obtaining access to all of this information with very little effort , should potential employers or schools be allowed to obtain your login information for social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter? The argument for requiring access to an applicant's social media accounts is one of character and security concerns. In Virginia, State Trooper candidates are required to log in to their Facebook accounts in the presence of an interviewer, and then all of the information on the site is reviewed by the applicant and the interviewer. The rationale behind such tactics is because Virginia claims that a character check in the virtual level is as much part of the interview process as the physical background check. And Virginia isn't the only state that has agencies that engage in this sort of practice. Bozeman, Montana and the Department of Corrections in Maryland asked job