We saw that picture of you kissing your ex-girlfriend’s best friend. And the one with you posing topless. And we saw your mangled arm after you scraped through the bushes in search of the shoe you kicked off during that bacchanalian celebration of your 19th birthday.
But we weren’t the only ones. DPS saw you, and so did a potential employer, and your future girlfriend. Even Grandma saw (good luck asking for snicker doodles, now). Eventually, the American public will review your collegiate shindigs when you run for office.
How, you may ask, do these people know about my exhilaratingly shifty adventures? How do they know my birthday? And my secret obsession with The Princess Bride?
They saw it all-on Facebook.
This scenario may sound like a nightmare or, perhaps, well-phrased propaganda, too Orwellian to be true. It is an increasingly familiar situation, however, for students in colleges across the country.
We are slowly realizing that millions of people know more about us than we’d like, and we’re inviting them to look.
Several university administrations now use Web sites like Xanga, MySpace and Facebook to screen the merit of potential students and the behavior of current students. Recently at Buffalo University, thanks to Facebook, approximately 485 students were apprehended for underage drinking, 421 for smoking marijuana and 1,019 for using harder drugs. Security even busted a prostitution ring based in a residence hall.
A University of Washington student’s party was broken up when police got wind of it online. Loyola University has forbidden Facebook for its athletes. They even look at team members’ friends, judging them based on the Facebook company they keep.
Three-quarters of students check Facebook at least once a day. The average student logs on six times every 24 hours. With so much traffic, an online profile is hardly a private matter.
Of course, that is part of the allure. Facebook.com is the ninth most visited site on the Internet. As of March 31, 2006, five-eighths of all college students-as well as those hired to govern them, and those who may hire you-can find out just what you did this weekend, with whom you’re in love and what you plan to be when you grow up-if you choose to tell them. We may long to share our secrets, but we should keep in mind that once we take them out of the diary and put them onto the blog, they are public information.
One thing’s for sure, though: This is not a violation of privacy. You choose what you put on your profile. When you post a picture of yourself on the Internet next to a pyramid of alcohol, you expect others to look at it. When you post your birthday, residence hall or cell phone number online, you divulge private information to millions.
But what if you deleted that part about being in a relationship with your best frat buddy from your profile? What if you didn’t post pictures from last Saturday night? Facebook could be the past that proverbially comes back to haunt you, but it could also be your portal to socialization.
How many high school friends have you kept because of it? How much fun have you had making pointless associations and convincing people to join them? How much tantalizing drama has arisen? And, admit it, how often have looked up people you went to grade school with to see how they turned out?
Here’s the problem: Everything that makes your Facebook profile fun can also make it incriminating.
What can you do about that? Well, one solution is to abandon the idea of Internet profiles, pictures and journaling, altogether. If you have a story, tell it to your friend and not your employer, ex-girlfriend or Grandma. Tell it in person. Make a phone call. Send a letter.
Or, you could display everything online. Bare it all. And then, face the consequences. Because if you know everyone will know everything that you do, maybe you’ll think twice about making that face.
