Facebook

Hal writes:

For those of you who are not on a college campus, you may not be as familiar with Facebook. This online social network began as a tool for college students to meet each other (like a limited version of Myspace) and then expanded to high schools and now, to the best of my knowledge, is available to the general public.

Since Facebook is not going away any time soon, campus administrators need to deal with it and work with it in a positive fashion. Part of this is helping students to realize the messages they post could be seen by many people, and not just a small circle of friends. (In a similar fashion, I think that there are about four people who read this blog, when there could be many more who do that I just don't know about.)

This fall during RA training we talked with our RAs about the dangerous aspects of Facebook and how to make a good impression through pictures, things they write, and groups that they belong to. We warned them, generically, that as students from UWP graduate and join companies, those companies could in turn use Facebook to look students up prior to interviewing them for jobs an internships. This was, until now, just a theory on our part.

Tonight as I was preparing for hall council, a former RA stopped by my office. She informed me that she was fired from the Kwik Trip (local gas station) because of a Facebook group she belonged to. To read more about the situation, you can look at the UWP student newspaper The Exponent. Click on the article about Facebook in the "News" section. (Oh, and also making news this evening is the "Girls Gone Wild" film crew is coming to Platteville next week. But that's a different story.)

Now, I do have to say that I am a little excited about the possible nation wide media implications (and/or legal implications) that this story has. There are a number of reasons why I feel that the students should not have been fired, but I also feel that there were things the students could have done to prevent themselves from being found out in the situation. There are too many factors on both sides for me to comment about, but I could make some arguments either way.

In the end, be cautious with your postings. What I tell my students is, don't post anything that they would not print out and put on their residence hall room door or post on a sign in front of their parents house. Because people do see things online.

I'll be curious to hear your thoughts after reading the article. Please post some comments!