The other day, I got a Facebook message from a high school buddy of mine I haven’t talked to in years. Excited that maybe the kid was ready to de-douchbag and talk to some of his old friends, I opened the message, only to see that it said “hi mygener.im.” Not only do I have to deal with 5 emails a day about Viagra or loosing weight fast, but no I’m going to have to clean my Facebook inbox from spam too? I say this is where I draw the line in the sand. Either Facebooks steps up the effort to get ride of things like this, or I’m deleting every social network/blog/photo sharing account I own. I’ve got plenty of ways to waste my time on those sites without having to bother deleting crap messages.
Furthermore, who still gets fooled by spam messages? I mean, its been ten years since emails got big, and people still can’t comprehend the notion of “don’t click on links?” C’mon, it can’t be that difficult. I want someone to make eliminating spam polifiration thier contribution to the digital world- Bill Gates, I’m looking your way. If we can get rid of smallpox, we can get rid of spam.
Remember that picture of you throwing up in a urinal with Leslie giving you a high five? What happens when you make it to the big time and need that pciture to stop tailing you? Just how hard is it to get rid of that digital tail?
You can read the entire Computerworld article, but the long of the short is this- its difficult. Their study was conducted over a one week period in which they tried to get a single entry from a girl boasting about her drug-induced sexual trysts removed from an online journal. They eventually did get it removed at the end of the week, which might suggest hope for those looking to clean up their online lives. For today’s students, however, I don’t think that is an option. Think about how many photos you have online that might make an employer raise an eyebrow, or how many status updates you wrote when you’d had one too many. Its all to easy to send out those lewd digitizations, but if you ever find yourself in an industry where those things haunt you (I’m lookin at you future politicians), you’re in for a world of hurt.
The best thing you can do it just cut those comments and pictures out of your digital life all together. Persuant to that, I deleted my wall a week ago, in addition to all my photos, just to be safe. Its not that I don’t want you to see that I’m thinking “Passed out at three, woke up at ten, went out to eat, then did it again.” Its that I feel like those statements are akin to a digital tramp stamp- fun while your on spring break, but band when you’re 35 and your kids see it.
A study recently put out by the Ohio State University shows that college students who use Facebook have lower grades that students who don’t. The study, conducted against 219 Buckeyes, showed that Facebook users had GPAs between 3.0 and 3.5, while non-users had GPAs between 3.5 and 4.0. The article also notes that 79% of users believe that Facebook isn’t interfereing with their studies, as if it is attempting to push them towards some type of Facebook 12 step program.
At the hight of its popularity, I was admitedly on Facebook far too often. It was just to easy: study statistics, or look at a picture of three dogs in banana suits tagged as my buddies. I managed to not let it affect my grades, but there were certainly a lot of sleepless nights that could have been avoided had I not spent the night before Facebook-stalking people I care little about. On the “Facebook detracts from study hours” argument of the article, I’m in accord.
I take issure, however, with the methods that they use to come to this conclusion. The problem isn’t whether or not you use Facebook, but how often you use it. Further, in 4 years of college I have never met someone who hasn’t at one point had a Facebook account. I’m guessing, then, that those with no Facebook account likely don’t have very many friends. Those individuals, whether Facebook exists are not, are still going go be the individuals in the library on Friday night, letting them get an upper hand on more socially-adept students. Likewise, even if Facebook disappears, the user base would still find ways to socialize and detract from their studying.
If you going to go to OSU and make unfounded claims, at least have the character to not attack the easy target, Facebook, but get at the root problem: human nature.
I’ve said before Twitter is useless. But aside from it just being a waste, if you’re this person, it could cost you some serious coin. The twittiot send out a message bragging about the job Cisco offered him, and then commented on how terrible the work would be (because working for the most respected IT hardware company while most tech workers get canned is really a hassle). A Cisco employee promptly replied asking who the hiring manager was. Oops.
I think people need to stop and reflect on the ‘real world’ equivalents of these technologies before they get sucked in to using them. They’re the equivalent of yelling your thought into every area you’ve ever been in. What’s worse, because these comments are searchable, its like setting up a ghetto blaster to repeat your statements for the unforseable future. I’ve you’ve got something thats really something you want to share, by all means go for it. But don’t be so quick to solicit attention from your friends and stalkers that you let something slip that ‘you 2 hours from now’ is going to regret.
I’ll admit- I used twitter. For about two days, more than a year ago. It was then, and will always be, worthless. Why would I want to be bombarded with what people are doing at any given moment? If I need a question answered, I’ll turn to the Googlenets. If I really wanted to know that your feet hurt, I’d call you up and ask how they’re doing. Is having to hear a relentless stream of mindless comments really worth finding out that the line at Maggie Mae’s is 10 people deep? Sure, they’ve got ridiculous venture capital coming in because they’re at the hight of their 15 minutes of fame, but eventually, the $5 million dollar burn rate is going to catch up with them. My only hope is that they’re sell out hard, everyone will stop using it, and I’ll never have to hear the word ‘twitterati’ again.
Scott made an interesting point in class yesterday that if you don’t want your information out there, you shouldn’t be posting it on the Internets. I agree with that, but this article brings up an caveat - that is, what if I can’t say if I want my information on there?
The story is from a lady who asked Facebook to take down her deceased brother’s page, outlining how difficult it is for her to deal with the grief, how she doesn’t want his private information exposed, and even having the foresight to send a copy of the death certificate just so she could show some probable cause. Facebook responded by telling her that they take certain measures when a member dies, such as allowing only friends to see there profile, and removing certain personal information. Ostensibly they tried to help, in actuality they told her that they know how to deal with her grief better. What right do they have to make this judgement call, especially in the face of a bereaved family member who asks politely and justifiably. To me, this wreaks of a company that wouldn’t hesitate to profit off of something you post to their site.
I was browsing CNN this morning an came across an article about surgeons twittering during surgeries. They’re using tweets as a way to keep the friends and family of patients up-to-date on the surgery progress, and make surgeries more comfortable to patients who will have to undergo the same thing. Ostensibly it seems like a decent idea.
I’m not sure if knowing that my doctor is taking breaks from slicing me up to send out notes would give me that comfort. I’ve seen the quality of work I put out when I’m trying to study and use Facebook, and its not encouraging. I’m sure they feel like they aren’t distracted by the process, but its not a risk that I’d be willing to take. I think it’d also be hard to draw a line between what’s useful and what’s a waste of time. What if they decide they want to start posting pictures of Facebook? Or the doctor realizes he botched the job and decides he wants to start updating his LinkedIn?
Computerworld put out an interesting article last year about how employers use social networks. According to them 1 in 5 hiring managers check applicants pages on MySpace and Facebook to see what they’re all about. Of those who do, 1 in 3 have found information that they’ve used to toss out an application. Careerbuilder.com is now recommending that anyone who posts their resume also sanitize their profiles to ensure that any questionable comments and pictures involving booze or drugs are gone.
This has become less of an issue for me since Facebook allowed users to make their profiles private, however I still don’t agree with the concept. When I interviewed for my last internship, I mentioned studying abroad in one of my answers. My interviewer replied, “Oh yeah, you had some great pictures post from that.” The idea never crossed my mind that they’d Facebook stalk me, nor had I done anything to clean up my page. They ended up being fine with it, but I was a still offended at the fact that they’d bring my personal information into the business realm without my invitation. I can appreciate that they want to ensure they’re hiring the right people, but to me it paints a very skewed picture. The fact that I’ll go out and enjoy my free time doesn’t mean that I’m not a good candidate, and I’d be irate if that prevented my from getting a job offer. Furthermore, I don’t want to have to constantly clean up what other people say to me so that it doesn’t get misconstrued and end up hurting my chances later.
It seems like social networking is missing a guide to proper conduct. People are letting themselves because they think the Internet gives them anonymity, which really grinds my gears.
