As Bob Saget’s voiceover of a 40-year-old Ted Mosby in the television comedy “How I Met Your Mother” once said in an episode where young Ted sends a message he immediately regretted, “The worst thing is, once you send a text, you can never get it back.”

While as humorous as the episode may have been, Saget’s voice-over message
actually has a startling bit of truth behind it.

In this case, I believe ‘text’ is interchangeable with social media, i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and, if anybody still uses it out there, MySpace.

As college students, it is forced down our throats to attempt to get an internship and eventually a full-time, professional job.

With thousands upon thousands of applicants, it is your job to make yourself better than all of those other resumes out there. And perhaps you’ve got the grades, the extracurriculars and even the charisma a business might like.

Then, they go to your social media, where all sorts of problems can take place. You’ve got pictures of yourself at parties, perhaps a drunk Tweet or two (okay, come one, we’ve all been there; we go to a public university in Wisconsin). Even something that indicates support for a particular political party or social movement that might not coincide with the employers views.

Suddenly, your name is removed from the application process, and your dream job or internship is down the drain just like that.

Please, I am encouraging you right now so you don’t have to attempt to explain yourself on interview day to make two separate social media pages of whatever medium you go on the most. Make one for your professional career, linking to some projects and “friending” resources, and one for your personal self, where you can post all the pictures with your tongue out and eyes closed with a big ol’ blunt in hand sporting “she looked good last night” shirts you want. Just make sure to not use your full name on that one, though. And for good measure, really change the privacy settings. You can never be too safe.

According to a study performed by znet.com, 56 percent of employers said they were likely to check out an applicant’s Facebook or Twitter page.

The study also showed a survey question where some employers said they would indeed fire someone based on the misuse of a social media page.

Here is another way to look at it. In a lot of jobs, you need to pass a drug test. You wouldn’t even think about doing an illegal drug that might possibly show up on a test to prevent you from your dream internship or job. At least, I’d hope not.

So think of your social media site as a drug. Would you, for lack of better a term, abuse it right before an interview? Probably not.

Plus, if you have a separate site with only your classroom work and other experiences posted, employers would have an easier time accessing the material you wish to show them, perhaps giving you the upper hand in the hiring process.

We live in a crazy world where technology can shine light on even the slightest move. If you make that move at the wrong time, you have the potential to completely screw yourself over.

With that in mind, why wouldn’t you want to create a separate page employers can get to in order to avoid that situation? It keeps you out of trouble while allowing you to still connect with an abundance of resources.

And keep, if anything else, for my own entertainment, your personal social media account for fun pictures, links and one-sided posts for yourself. As long as you are smart and change the privacy settings a bit so employers don’t see that one instead.

It’s a win-win situation. But whatever you do, don’t accidentally post something on the wrong site, of course!