Exposer: The Facebook Factor

Facebook is undoubtedly one of the most popular social networking websites that we have seen since the birth of internet.  It is a great tool to use to get in touch with old childhood friends, touch base with family members, or just keep up with the social realm around you.  When someone activates a new facebook account, they often ignore the self exposer that they are creating.  This lack of privacy has been an aging problem that has come with social networking websites.  People are starting to share more information with more pople and it this has led to people getting fired from their job and even denied by universities.  

Randall Stross of The New York Times gives uses an example of a young woman by the name of Stacy Snider, a 25 year old student, working to get her degree majoring in education.  She was dismissed from the student teaching program at a near by high school and denied her teaching credential after some staff found a photograph on her MySpace profile.  The picture of Stacy at a halloween party dressed as a pirate with a red cup to her lip read the caption “drunken pirate,” which was deemed inappropriate by the school.  The exposer that social networking sites like myspace or facebook allow  employers to search your profile and make sure that you aren’t promoting inappropriate behavior.  This reminds me of when my sisters were student teachers.  They had spent hours upon hours deleting all of their inappropriate facebook pictures they had accumulated throughout their college career.  It may have been annoying, but in the long run it definitely worked out for their best interest.  They were both able to quickly get jobs after they graduated and their newly refreshened image of their facebook account helped without a doubt.

High school teens are also greatly affected when they don’t monitor what they share on their social networking profiles.  I came across a short article on huffington post stating that 80% of college admission officers use facebook while recruiting students.  If a high school student displays an inappropriate image of themselves on their facebook profile, that may alter the chances of them getting into the school that they want.  Problems like these can be easily avoided by untagging yourself from photos and being active with your privacy settings.  Mark Zuckerberg seems to have some obsession of continually updating the privacy, so make sure you check your settings often.  Follow these easy steps and you should be in the clear.  Happy social networking!