The Student Life Committee of Plymouth State University’s Student Senate put on a forum to raise awareness and to educate the student body on the hazards of Facebook on Tuesday, April 10.
Paul Wheeler from Residential Life created a PowerPoint presentation meant to stir the thoughts of the student body and give a better understanding of the risks created by the popular website.
Facebook is a blog site, designed to stimulate social networking between different college students. It soon grew to the point where anybody can register for the site based on college, high school, employment and geographic regions. Wikipedia affirms Facebook is the sixth most visited website in America, and the top website for photo sharing, according to information given at the forum. Over 6 million photos are uploaded each day and the site contains over one billion photos worldwide. In America, 85% of college students have a Facebook account and 60% of them log in on a daily basis.
Recently, concerns have been raised over the content put on Facebook. What was once private information is now being made public. Screen names, home addresses, residence hall numbers, cell phone numbers, ages, photos and member’s sexual orientation are becoming easily accessible. This makes Facebook a prime place for online predators and stalkers, similar to the fears MySpace generated in the past. But Facebook is being used as a tool for more than just the social networkers and online predators – schools, employers and the law enforcement officials across the country are making use of it.
At schools, photos on Facebook have made it possible to investigate underage drinking and other violations. For example, a group of students were expelled and charged for vandalism of their school’s football field. They were caught because of photos posted on their Facebook pages. Facebook can be used to judge students with the University’s Codes of Standards which every student must sign when they come to the school. PSU’s Dean of Students Tim Keefe said, “The University doesn’t go out searching for violations, but if they are brought to our attention we will approach [them] in an appropriate way.”
Employers can look through Facebook profiles as well. At least one Plymouth State University student has been denied job offers because of the content on their Facebook page. One of the major concerns discussed was how employers were able to do this.
“Are you aware how long [your information] is out there for?” asked Dwight Fischer, Chief Information Officer for PSU. “Places like Google archive any new information, which could be there for a long time. If you post it once, it’s there forever.” There are even people that get hired to search on blog sites like Facebook or MySpace for eight hours a day, looking for information about applicants. “You can’t control it,” said Mark Fishler, a Criminal Justice Professor, “you need to be conscious of what you are putting out there.”
Other problems have risen out of Facebook as well. What has been a productive tool in the past to get to know your future classmates has proved to have negative affects as well. Before students moved to college, Facebook made it possible to know a lot about their future roommate than ever possible before. But now, schools have seen an increase in parents calling and demanding that their son or daughter be paired with another student because of things like their current roommates’ sexual orientation. It has created a place tool where anybody can judge someone based on their profile information as opposed to getting to know them as a person.
“Is it a good connection tool?” Mark Fishler asked the students from his seat on the panel. “Are you gaining more depth as a human being?” A new issue has risen among blogs; the issue of the correlation between social networking and ego-casting, or the act of creating a facade for other people to see.
Facebook is the perfect tool for something like this, as it lets people create educated opinions of you without ever having met you. This allows you to create an image ofwho you want to be in other people’s eyes. All that you would ever need to paint this picture would be an e-mail address and a name, and the rest of what one puts down could be a complete work of fiction; the majority of people that view your profile would never know.
Awareness was the point of this forum. The message was to caution students against posting pictures of themselves drinking when they’re looking for a job.
“Facebook has been a sign of a significant change in privacy,” said Dean Keefe, “or at least a new lack thereof.”