Facebook and You:

What students at Diversity College need to know

What is Facebook?

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According to Facebook.com: “Facebook is an online directory that connects people through social networks at schools.” Facebook is a way for students to connect with people they know, go to school with, share interests with and more There are two versions of Facebook currently, the original version designed for colleges and universities and a newer version targeted for high school students

Facebook:

a brief and tumultuous history

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Founded in February 2004

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Founders:

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Mark Zuckerberg Eduardo Saverin Dustin Moskovitz Chris Hughes

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All were students at Harvard College at the time Lawsuit from website ConnectU

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Alleged that Zuckerberg had stolen the idea while employed by their company

Facebook Today

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All four of the original founders left Harvard to pursue Facebook.com full-time in Palo Alto

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It is estimated that over 2,000 colleges and universities are supported by Facebook and more than 25,000 high schools

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More than 6 million college student accounts already exist and it is projected that 20,000 profiles are added each day (Statistics retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_(website) on February 17, 2006)

What current college students are saying about Facebook:

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Our team conducted a survey and found:

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81% said they use Facebook at least once a day 77% had been contacted by someone they did not know through Facebook

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44% felt that Facebook has a negative impact on their academic work

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The most common advice these students provided for students new to Facebook was:

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To be cautious about what information is posted on your profile

Components of Facebook

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Personal Profile:

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Personal Information Photo Groups Class Schedule Wall

Components of Facebook

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“Friends”

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Who can be friends?

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From YOUR school, from OTHER schools Current students, alumni/ea, faculty, staff, etc

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Anyone who has a [email protected]

e-mail address can register for Facebook How do you become friends?

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Request an acknowledgment of “friend” status

Components of Facebook

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Details and Social Timeline

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Friend Details

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How you “know” this person

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Lived together, worked together, organizations/teams, took a course together, summer/study abroad program, went to school together (preschool, elementary school, middle school, high school, college, grad school), family, through a friend, through Facebook, met randomly, “hooked up”, dated

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Social Timeline

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Uses friend details to construct a timeline for the user Displays groups, friends and more that the user was connected to through Facebook by year

Components of Facebook

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Groups and Groupies

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Thousands of groups can be joined by members of Facebook:

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“I love Harry Potter” “Procrastinators Unite…Tomorrow!!” “Student Government Association @ Diversity College” You can also become a “groupie” of a group if you know a certain amount of people with membership in that group

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The groupie feature can be turned off in the privacy settings

Components of Facebook

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Events

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Groups and individual Facebook users can create, post and invite others to events:

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“John’s 20 th Birthday Bash” “Sorority Recruitment Informational Meeting” “Fusion Hall Council Meeting”

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Personal invitations can be sent or the event can be listed as open to anyone

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There is also and RSVP feature for Facebook events

Components of Facebook

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Facebook Messages

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Internal e-mail-type component of Facebook

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Messages can be sent from any Facebook user to another, regardless of school or friend status “Poke” Feature

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This feature sends a message via Facebook to another user stating that he or she has been “poked” by that person, then the option to “poke” back is provided There is no specific purpose to the “poke”

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Considered flirting by some, or simply a joke between friends

Components of Facebook

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The Facebook “Wall”

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Each individual and group profile can have a wall Essentially a message board where other users can post public messages on a user’s profile

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Can be edited by the person whose profile the message is posted The message writer’s Facebook picture appears next to their message

Components of Facebook

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Photo Features:

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Profile Photo

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Appears on the user’s profile page, attached to messages and other things the user does on Facebook

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My Photo Page

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Allows the user to post “albums” of pictures The user can label the people in the pictures and provide descriptions of what is occurring in the picture The user can also “tag” the people in the picture, which ties the image to that user’s profile in an additional photo section

Components of Facebook

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Other components:

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Advertisment: can be purchased by students or corporations

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Generates revenue for Facebook

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Pulse Page

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Has Top Ten lists generated from the Facebook community and other trend driven features

Facebook: The Good

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It’s FREE!

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Thousands of groups

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Can help you find others who share your interests, hobbies, major, etc.

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Academics

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Find students enrolled in your classes to form study groups Locate friends

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From home, high school, and other places who you have lost touch with

Facebook: The Bad

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Procrastination Tool

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Most students who use Facebook state that it can serve as a distraction from school work and other responsibilities Feeling of “safe” and “private” playground for students

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In fact many people other than students can access Facebook profiles

Facebook: The Ugly

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Internet Stalking

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Personal information such as address, phone number and class schedule can provide many tools to individuals interesting in keeping tabs on someone Incriminating and questionable photos tagged to your profile by you or others

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Schools and police may use as evidence Can be used by employers who are interested in background information

“But no one will see it later, right?”

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Maybe…maybe not!

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There are companies that are collecting everything that is posted to the internet

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Companies could purchase access to such information, allowing pages that have since been removed to still be seen

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Other Internet Technologies to be aware of…

MySpace, Friendster, XuQa

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Similar to Facebook Livejournal, Blog, and many others

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Online journal pages WebCT, Blackboard

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Online component to academics, internet support for courses AIM, MSN Messenger, etc.

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Internet messaging programs

What should I do?

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Be smart!

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Don’t post information you would not be comfortable with strangers having access Don’t post information that you would not want your mom, your teachers, the police, etc to see

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Think about how something could be interpreted, or misinterpreted, by others

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It might seem like a joke to you and your friends, but could be seen as serious by others Don’t be afraid to edit or delete things posted to your wall or photos tagged by others

What should I do?

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Utilize Facebook’s Privacy Settings

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3 levels of privacy as well as a custom setting Blocking feature to keep individuals from being able to see your profile or contact you

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Allows you to control who can view your profile and what aspects of your profile those people can see

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Features can be turned off, such as the groupie feature and your wall

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Diversity College wants you to be safe and have fun!

Diversity College will not “police” your use of the internet

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But…if information is brought forth about activities in violation of school policy or state/federal law, Diversity College is obligated to act Diversity College asks that you use Facebook and other internet programs and resources for “good” and not “evil”

Information for this presentation was found at the following sites:

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www.facebook.com

www.myspace.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_(website) Survey conducted by Diversity College’s Facebook Taskforce Also check out Diversity College’s student conduct code found at: www.diversitycollege.edu