Our generation is no stranger to the notion of an online persona.

However, sometimes its simply easy to forget the basics. In the Huffington Post article, “6 Social Media Updates That Turn Off Recruiters” Hannah Morgan outlines some simple yet essential guidelines to keep you on track.

The first listed is, naturally, to not mention drugs. Even as a joke. Second, “sex sells, but not in a job search.” Or, as Morgan solidifies: “You wouldn’t dare send that joke, photo or link in an email to your boss, so keep it out of your social networking stream.”

Third, is not to drink and share. Which especially at the age of legality and beyond is likely easy to overlook. Nonetheless, it is not a good look.

Fourth, is to avoid profanity, because “65 percent of recruiters viewed status updates containing profanity negatively, putting it in the top three things not to do.”

Fifth, spell correctly. Essentially, this is a reflection on your written and language proficiency, and a lack of detail in your entire social media outlet is an indication or at least a risk of how you will be in a professional environment. Morgan notes, “More recruiters react negatively to profanity (65%) and grammar and punctuation errors in posts/tweets (61%) than references to alcohol use (47%).”

Finally, just don’t talk about guns.

In short, the debate of the invasive nature is undoubtedly relevant, but unfortunately somewhat irrelevant. The fact of the matter is, theres no privacy on the internet and if you have to ask whether its ok, it most likely is not…or, in Morgan’s words: “Just remember, we don’t all live in Vegas where what’s said there stays there.”