I'll show you mine if you show me yours, let's compare profiles and decide whose is worse.
First, they taught us about safe sex. Next, they lectured us against reckless driving. Now, it is time for somebody, somewhere to train our generation in sensible social networking.
As described in Friday's Post story, Facebook reverses invasive policy after public outrage
Facebook's controversial back-and-forth with its terms of service (TOS) got a rise out of users who were made aware of the perpetual consequences of their online activities.
But even after the fact, much of the issues covered in the temporary TOS have spotlighted what needed no legal jargon to make true: that online is almost always synonymous with irrevocably public when it comes to any Web-based info sharing.
Facebook is the first Web site in history to hold so much personal data among so many users, and it's only expected that people will get touchy when changes are made to its TOS. But perhaps people haven't been touchy enough in regards to this, up until the Consumerist blog brought it to the public eye earlier this month.
Our generation is the first to grow up under the watchful eye of adults who recognize the biographical gold mines college grads carry with them through the site.
Just as well, the number of Facebook users over 30 has exploded in past year, for better or for worse. Whether this causes you to un-tag faster than ever, or to smile proud now that you can tag your mom in that photo of a family round of beer pong on Parents Weekend, may very much depend on your long-term career goals.
Still, too many students appear unaware that their Facebook activity and tagged photos may very well be in reach of not only faculty, but also potential employers, voters, business partners or clients - and all that is often based on Friends' privacy settings as much as their own.
Sure, it's an angle that countless media have covered before: Do you know who's checking out your profile? But the fact that so many people choose to carelessly leave information down to their address and phone number for everyone to see is all the more shocking in 2009.
While most of us used MySpace as our regretful training grounds and matured past pouring our souls into the Web for, literally, everyone to see, an alarming number of users still keep their Facebook accounts open to friends' friends, networks and even all of Facebook.
In my mind, it must take a cocktail of ignorance mixed with heavy editing to be so confident in one's public portrayal. Sure, there are those who keep their profiles around as a sort of business card - minimal information and only the good stuff - but most users are simply too careless to consider how much personal information they are giving away.
While every successful person has some skeletons in their closet - even Sarah Palin was found to have a college photo in which she showed off a t-shirt reading, I may be broke but I'm not flat busted - we have to be realistic about our expectations of leniency when the remnants of our college lives remain documented well into our work lives.
Chances are, a decade or two from now, the newly elected president of the United States will have had a Facebook account. And, sitting in the Oval Office, he/she will fondly look back upon his/her college-era paranoia about Facebook - after his/her opponent was incriminated for some Michael Phelps-like photos.
Students must consider the fact that, one day, they will be functioning members of society with a past that may be all-too-chronicled for certain high-rank positions to look past.
So think back to your old MySpace profile. Do you still consider it a fair representation of the current you? Didn't think so. Now, consider the fact that you are - pretty much permanently - spreading college you all over Facebook. Will it be the same deal, TOS or not? You betcha.
Olga Kharitonova is a junior studying journalism. Send her your incriminating
Facebook stories at ok137308@ohiou.edu. 4
Opinion
Olga Kharitonova
