College students across the nation are chronicling their lives on Facebook and other social networks such as MySpace with photos, videos, instantaneous status updates and blog entries that highlight their thoughts, opinions, interests and dislikes.
Facebook, one of the largest social networking sites in the country with 175 million users, connects “friends” around the world and allows them to digitally share their lives. In fact, the site is so popular many faculty members and university administrators have joined its ranks. And, while the underlining purpose of the social network may be to connect and share, some college students may be disclosing too much in the eyes of academic leadership.
In February, Tony Harris, a student attending Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., was expelled for one year after allegedly posting a lewd comment about his ex-girlfriend on Facebook.
After the 2008 presidential election, University of Texas lineman Buck Burnette was kicked off the nationally ranked Longhorn football team after updating his Facebook profile status with the following comment: “All the hunters gather up, we have a (expletive) in the White House.” And in 2006, John Brown University administrators ousted student Michael Guinn when photos of Guinn dressed in drag surfaced on Facebook. The private, Christian, liberal arts college located in Arkansas accused Guinn of violating campus conduct, which mandates that behavior must “affirm and honor Scripture.”
Dr. Ian Bogost, an associate professor in the School of Literature, Communication and Culture at the Georgia Institute of Technology, is not alarmed by these incidents, which he labels as “rare” when considering the millions of students who subscribe to the social networking service.
Students, by in large, are knowledgeable about the consequences inappropriate photos, videos or comments posted to the social networking site can have on their collegiate careers and beyond, Bogost says.
Bogost does not use Facebook as habitually as his students, but he is a member of the community. As a professor of media studies, Bogost is often engaged in conversations with his students about the pitfalls of digital media and online communication.
