Why do we tell PNMs to clean up their Facebook?

[exlurker]

Originally Posted by TriDeltaSallie

After reading yet another thread telling a PNM why she needs to clean up her online presence, I thought... Why do we do this?

If the PNM is someone who needs to hide who she truly is in order to have a favorable outcome during recruitment, why do we want to extend an invitation to her?

If chapters really don't care if the woman parties hard, sleeps around, does drugs, etc. then why remove those facts from her online profile? It is simply truth in advertising.

If chapters don't want a woman who parties hard, sleeps around, does drugs, etc. then it is to our benefit to have that information available so we know who we are really dealing with.

One problem is that a Facebook presence may not be "who she truly is" at all. Some people -- gasp, including recent high school grads -- may have deliberately made themselves look wilder / skankier than they are, in the belief that they'll seem more mature, attractive, whatever.

Of course, others may have toned their lives down a lot for Facebook.

One never knows just from Facebook, right?

Some of the "clean it up" advice is a way of saying "give yourself a break, for purposes of a first impression."