FRONT PAGE

LOCAL NEWS:
   AIDS WALK
   ESPN VISIT
   RUGBY
  
FEATURES:
   DREW
   DEREK
   MIKE

 NATIONAL:
  DRUGS
  RELATED

INTERNATIONAL:
   APACHE
   RELATED

BLOGS:
   ANGIE
   JENN

HISTORY:
   THE 60'S
  
PROFS
   AS PEOPLE

READERS' RIDES

CALENDAR

INTERACTIVE
   NARRATIVES

ARCHIVES

CONTACT US
 

     Similar to the introduction of the internet and cell phones, Facebook, an online social website where college students and now high school age students can interact in the open, has become a time vacuum. It seems that we don't know, myself included, what we would have done or how we would have spent our time if we didn't have Facebook. It's a great way to find old friends from high school or even elementary school. In fact there are more than 6.1 million college students from more than 2,100 schools with profiles on Facebook. We can all admit to it, we spend hours sometimes just looking at photos, reading profiles and writing sometimes obscene messages on each others walls. Well, that's where things get a little tricky.
     Recently there have been a handful of cases regarding Facebook or the more publicly known website, MySpace, about what people are posting on their websites. For example, in our neighboring state of Vermont, a potential student from Vermont Technical College was not hired for a job because a prospective employer changed his mind after viewing the student's Facebook profile. Should this be right? Should potential employers and now even your own professors be viewing your profile, which you may have thought was only being viewed by your friends? The other big question is how do these non-school related people have access to Facebook? Only students, staff and/or administrators with a valid school website can become a member of Facebook. So how exactly are these outsiders gaining access to our profiles? Is this intrusion of privacy?
     In a recent article by USA Today, they discussed free-speech concerns with Facebook and MySpace. They said students at private schools or universities are bound by the rules of their institution and not protected by the First Amendment right of free speech. Students enrolled at public universities have more latitude to express themselves. 
     Another article mentioned that students need to know that university administrators and police are also on Facebook and may be monitoring your activities. I can understand if people want to monitor what members have in their profiles if it poses a threat to anyone, but to simply check profiles of students who are having fun is a little outlandish.
     There was a recent case at the University of Central Florida where a student was charged with " harassment through personal abuse". The reasoning: he created a Facebook group entitled         "Victor Perez is a Jerk and a Fool". Victor Perez actually filed charges against this student for creating this group. Although the student creator of the group was found that he was "not in violation" of the "personal abuse", I find it absurd that any student would go so far as pressing charges against a Facebook group!!!
     Only time will tell how out of control this Facebook and MySpace phenomenon will go and the cases that will arise from them. But for right now, all I can say is your space on MySpace isn't so private and have some common sense.