I know some of you are social media junkies, but there is a difference between you using social media and social media using you. In less than two weeks Facebook will begin putting your entire history since your initial registration on the site up for public consumption via your profile page.

In an article titled “You Will Reveal your past! Facebook’s timeline feature becomes mandatory for all users – with just 7 days to ‘clean up‘” from the dailymail:

Via the official Facebook blog, the site announced, ‘Last year we introduced timeline, a new kind of profile that lets you highlight the photos, posts and life events that help you tell your story.’

‘Over the next few weeks, everyone will get timeline. When you get timeline, you’ll have 7 days to preview what’s there now.

‘This gives you a chance to add or hide whatever you want before anyone else sees it.’

Timeline has been criticised for showing off pictures and posts that people might have wanted to forget.

The new look also pairs with ‘timeline apps’, such as Spotify, which post every time people listen to a song, or eat a recipe or visit somewhere.

If you are currently looking for a job, will be looking for a job soon, or think there might ever come a day when you will be looking for a job, you might want to go over to Facebook right now and clean up your account. Take down anything that you would not want a future employer to read.

If you currently looking for a relationship, think you might be looking for a relationship in the near future, or will ever have to look for a relationship again, you might want to go over to Facebook right now and clean up your account. Take down anything that you don’t want a future boyfriend/girlfriend to see and use to judge you.

We all must practice brand management. You ARE your brand. Don’t allow yourself to be tarnished by goofy pictures you took 5 years ago or allow profanity written on a social media site to sully your good name.

If you have not been responsible with social media in the past, NOW is a good time to start cleaning up your track record. Do not give other people rope to hang you with by putting too much of your personal information in the public domain.

Make sure that you are the one using social media, and social media is not using (or embarrassing) you.