You've heard the stories about Generation Y. They're the 18 to 25-year-olds who wear shorts to work, demand flexible schedules, frequent Starbucks and are experts in anything high-tech.
Most business executives will admit they're different than any group of employees before them and they do have some great qualities, but there's a problem that's keeping many of them from landing a job after they graduate college.
Most of us remember the good, old college days - going out, sleeping in, dressing down and spending lots of time with friends. Back then social networking meant meeting up at the student center or the corner bar. Now, the place to connect is not really a place at all.
UALR graduate student, Kimberley Griggs, says, "It's where I find out about everything that I do - on MySpace or Facebook."
J. Ward, 23, says, "I could live without MySpace; I wouldn't want to live without MySpace."
Here's how popular these sites are - every minute 157 new member profiles are added to MySpace, together MySpace and Facebook have more than 250 million active users and on the sites those users, mostly Gen Yer's, are sharing everything about themselves and we mean everything.
Ward explains on his page he's got, "some quirky things like I eat green beans out of a can."
UALR student Russ Galusha admits some people include their, "sexual interests, things like that."
Christina Vickers, 19, says she has a lot of pictures of her and her boyfriend on her page.
Ward continues, "I'm a huge open book. You can find out a lot of stuff about me on here - that's for sure."
Ward created his MySpace and Facebook pages in 2005 and he logs on around seven times a day. He's a college graduate with a degree in business currently working in the telecommunications field.
Ward explains, "I don't use my legal name, my address, my cell phone number -- none of that really personal information is on here and that's mostly just to have personal life not to conflict with business."
But experts say Ward and other Gen Yer's don't realize their space is never really private and it's having a major impact on their futures.
"It might affect it but I don't know who actually looks at it ... for employees," wonders 20-year-old Lilia Hernandez.
Vickers admits, "I've got some stuff on there I probably wouldn't want a future employer to see."
"It has worried me but nonetheless as you know I've got tons of personal information on there," says Ward. "Personal stuff that I do on the weekends, deep stuff such as religious views."
On his page you'll also find a story about the time he got into a fight over a girl and intimate stuff about dating - stuff that could keep him from landing a job.
Ward explains, "I don't think about it like I probably should."
Elizabeth Bowles president of internet service provider Aristotle says, "Employers are looking."
Bowles tells us companies won't hire and will even fire people because of pictures and comments on their MySpace pages.
Bowles explains, "Of the 45 percent of employers that have gone online to look at somebody's Facebook or MySpace page 78 percent of them said they had decided not to hire somebody based on what they found there."
And it's even happening to people who set their pages to private, even people like Ward who don't use their real names. Bowles says if someone has access to your page anyone can get it.
"The sad news, says Bowles, is that once it's out there, it's always out there. There are sites that archive and everything that's ever been on the web is archived somewhere."
We did a random search of 18 to 24-year-olds in Little Rock with an interest in marketing. That's how we found Ward and dozens of other Gen Yer's - some in college, some looking for a job and a lot with questionable information that would probably raise the eyebrows of any employer.
Bowles adds, "This is the generation that shows up to interviews in flip flops and I just don't think that they understand."
During our MySpace search we found a 22-year-old majoring in business. Right next to his college information are provocative pictures and quotes containing obscenities. We also found a 19-year-old majoring in criminal justice with the same type of obscenities, provocative pictures and signs she likes to drink covering her page.
"They absolutely need to see the consequences," says Bowles. People are coming out of college in a down economy and finding a really hard time finding a job and they don't know why they can't find a job and then they have that type of information on their website.
Ward says he does understand the consequences of putting too much information out there, even more so after our interview. But, he says MySpace and Facebook have also been instrumental in building relationships and even getting him some side jobs.
"I think it's a great tool," says Ward.
Bowles admits there are positives to these social sites but says it's up to each individual to take control of their online reputation, to get the damaging information off their pages and to remember the naked truth is that anything on there is available for not just your friends, but the world to see.
Bowles explains, "If it's not something you wouldn't feel comfortable saying in a room full of 20 strangers then don't put it on the internet!"
If you think you've got some questionable content or information - even from friends on your website, Bowles says you should take it all off your page now and even though everything you put on the internet is archived somewhere, she says, the more positive, most recent material will show up first in site searches.
On a side note, there are strictly professional networking sites that can be beneficial for you when it comes to getting jobs one of those is www.linkedin.com.