College Applicants & Their Facebook "Secrets"

http://wsj.com/article/SB122170459104151023.html

Amongst the ever-increasing competitiveness of college admission, universities are starting to peruse social networking sites to learn more about their applicants. Within this we discover yet another controversial aspect of the social networking phenomenom and its inherent breach on pre-existing notions of privacy.

A quick synopsis of the story: among the 500 colleges surveyed, 10% of admissions officials divulged that they do indeed search internet networking sites to learn more about potential students. Of these, 38% reported finding something on the applicant that "negatively affected" their view. All of the high school students interviewed for the story conceded they have re-considered some of the material on their Facebook pages to ensure nothing is present which could harm their acceptance chances.

What I found most intriguing in this story was the actual question as to whether information published on social networking sites was "private." As I understand, social networking and personal webpages were the accepted tool precisely intended to break the traditional privacy and isolation barriers. In my humble opinion, it seems slightly hypocritical for anyone to complain when this tool backfires by disseminating information to unintended parties. Moreover, it should in the least be clear that whatever is published on networking sites is both the responsibility of that person and entirely non-private material. In one part of the article, a college admissions officer actually dismisses the relevance of examining these sites, claiming that information contained within amounts to "casual conversation...equivalent with street-corner banter." This sentiment seems to drastically underestimate the thought, attention and time that is paid to these sites by many of its members, which would clearly make it decidely unequivalent to casual conversation.

We are obviously treading unchartered waters, and I suppose there is an always-present question as to the precise definition of "privacy." However, it seems rather sensical to me that when one decides to utilize internet networking tools, they do so at their own risk, and must recognize the unknown and unintended consequences of these tools. In other words, tread carefully.