‘lol…OMG!’ advises college students on Internet safety

Everybody has said or done something that was supposed to be funny (lol) and turned out to be more drama than expected (OMG).

Matt Ivester wrote his book "lol...OMG!: What Every Student Needs to Know About Online Reputation Management, Digital Citizenship and Cyberbullying" because he encountered the same situation.

He started juicycampus.com as an online gossip website where students could talk about the issues, encounters and funny stories they had on their campus.

His original intention failed when students started using the site to bring attention to their classmates in a negative light. Visitors to the site were name-dropping and intentionally spreading nasty rumors.

National attention was brought to the website for the hurtful and often untrue comments that students posted. Juicycampus.com eventually ran out of money and shut down.

Ivester has taken his online experience and used it to benefit others by giving advice about how to be smart on the Internet.

He believes that focusing on educating younger kids and high school students on Internet safety has left out many college students, who may not know how easy it is to upload party pictures to Facebook or to tweet while under the influence of alcohol.

College students should know the repercussions of their actions, but Ivester explains how using the Internet is natural to students and actions are often taken without thought.

With all of the emphasis already placed on Internet safety in high school, this book will most likely be a boring review for college students.

If you did not get the idea then, you probably never will, and you're even less likely to read about Internet etiquette.

"lol…OMG!" takes a look at several examples of Internet and social media mishaps to put the issue in perspective.

Recall the picture of Miley Cyrus and friends pulling at the corners of their eyes that made its way on to the Internet. While Cyrus defended her picture and said it was not a racial slur of any kind, people were still insulted.

Ivester uses this example to show that when you are uploading pictures onto Facebook or posting a status, you are subject to attention and scrutiny (even if it was only meant to be funny).

This section of the book is pretty specific to college but ultimately goes back to everything students have been taught: You are responsible for what you post.

Beyond the general cyber-bullying and safety-setting advice, Ivester also explains what actions to take if you become a target of other people's "lol…OMG!" moments.

Also included is advice on how to reshape your online image and enhance your reputation for college recruiters, employers and yes, even dates.

Taking the time to read this book could surprise you about how status posts and "likes" can affect the rest of your life, but none of this is new.

If any of this does sound like groundbreaking stuff, then "lol...OMG!" could be worth your time. The rest of us have enough reading as is.