By Ashley Nerz
Before Facebook.com, there was not one place that college and high school students could rely on to make instant friends, join clubs, advertise events, share photo albums and keep in touch with old friends.
Now, many students at colleges and high schools nationwide can not keep themselves away from the online friend directory created two years ago by Harvard undergraduate Mark Zuckerberg. Whether they are looking up a friend's contact information, sending someone a message, poking their secret crush, or just taking a study break, students find themselves spending a lot of their free time on Facebook.
"It definitely wastes a lot of time," said Daria Luddy, a senior at the University of Richmond and a member of Facebook since October 2004. But "if it wasn't Facebook, I would find something else to distract me."
Kyle Bullock, also a senior and Facebook member since October 2004, said that Facebook distracts him "because they keep putting more stuff on it, like pictures."
The photo album feature was added to Facebook late last fall.
The "Facebook Team" is always adding features to the directory, which Richmond students embrace quickly. The newest addition during spring was the ability to post events on the website. The Kappa Sigma fraternity used this feature to invite students to "Carlo's Super Sweet Sixteen Party" at Bar 321 in downtown Richmond . Aside from the new features and the time wasted on Facebook, many students use it for contact information. They often use the site to look up fellow undergraduates' phone numbers, dorm rooms and screen names.
"It makes life a lot easier because of the contact information," said Luddy. Members of Facebook also have the opportunity to share their marital status, political views, date of birth, interests, hobbies, favorite music, favorite movies, quotes and class schedules. Facebook "allows you to learn more about people you know," said Luddy.
Even sophomore Josh Tabb, a student who is not a member of Facebook, confessed that he is familiar with the site. Although he said he never got around to joining Facebook, he often finds himself sharing his friends' accounts. "I use it mostly just to look at pictures," he said. "Like when people come up in conversation and I don't know who they are."
Sophomore Mike Stubbs, a member of Facebook since October 2004, decided not to use Facebook for a month because of Lent. He also gave up America Online Instant Messenger.
"I did it because Facebook and AIM waste a substantial amount of time that I could be doing other things. I also wanted to develop more personal relationships," said Stubbs.
He ended up encountering a lot of challenges.
"I had a group project to do and I had to find out who my partners were without it. The little things on Facebook are a huge convenience," said Stubbs.
Another feature of Facebook that Stubbs missed was the birthday reminders that Facebook gives every day.
At Richmond, there are 4,375 registered users, according to Chris Hughes, a spokesperson for Facebook.com. As more students continue to rely on Facebook to contact each other and get to know each other at Richmond, some administrators are showing concern for students because of the potential dangers it can bring to their reputations and privacy.
"Students don't necessarily realize that it can be dangerous because we are all a big happy society," said Chris Faigle, a campus network security specialist. "I really wish more people knew how public Facebook is. If you ever run for president, whoever can sell the information on your profile will be offered $100,000."
Anyone with an .edu email address can join Facebook and request friendship with other members. If they have a richmond.edu email address, they automatically have access to all other member profiles with a richmond.edu address. Therefore, not only Richmond students, but Richmond faculty, staff and alumni have access to all Richmond Facebook profiles unless a member has personalized privacy restrictions on their account. A section on Facebook.com titled "My Privacy" offers its members the option to make their profiles visible to only their friends or everyone with a Richmond.edu
account. The section says that "We built Facebook to make it easy to share information with your friends and people around you. We understand you may not want everyone in the world to have the information you share on Facebook; that is why we give you control of your information." Many students do not know about the "My Privacy" section.
Bullock said he had no idea he had those options. Luddy said she found out about these options when she was a Rho Gamma for sorority recruitment and wanted her profile to only be visible to her friends.
Lt. Adrienne Meador of the campus police department is concerned about students putting contact information on their profiles because it is a public site. She said on Facebook there is a lot of trust, "but you're giving people access to where you live. I don't think that's a good idea."
"What students don't know is that you can find all of the contact information that is on Facebook, like dorm rooms and phone extensions, through the online campus directory," said Faigle. These tools can be found on the "search" of the University of Richmond website under the option "Search for People at the University." Only registered users on campus have access to this feature so that all of the information is safe. Meador said she thought the reason students do not utilize these university tools is because they are lazy.
Katybeth Dreisbach, a counselor at the Career Development Center and a member of Facebook, said if students are going to post a lot of information on Facebook, they should look at it as a representation of their reputation. She said someone once said that "Anything you put online is public information. Someone once used this phrase to judge what to put on Facebook, €˜Would you put it on a billboard for your Grandma to see?'" Dreisbach participated in a program in the fall through the Westhampton Deanery called "Whose Facebook is it Anyway?" The program aimed to educate students on the potential dangers of Facebook, as well as who was on Facebook. Dreisbach is particularly concerned with potential employers on Facebook.
"What is happening is that very young alums taking part in recruiting will look up potential employers on Facebook. A former Richmond student who now works at a big investment bank uses Facebook. They want Richmond to be represented well," she said.
After discovering that potential employers could see his profile, Bullock said that he was worried and he was going to delete his whole profile.
"I'm worried because of the clubs I am in, like €˜Marijuana,' €˜Beta Mu Delta' and €˜No Ma'am," he said. "Beta Mu Delta" is a marijuana fan club that stands for "Blaze Me Down," while "No Ma'am" is a males-only club that states, "If you like hanging out with dudes (and only dudes) and drinking beers, then this is the club for you."
Luddy, on the other hand, was not worried about potential employers seeing her profile.
"I'm personally not because there is nothing on there that is incriminating. It is not necessary for them to look at it because it is more college-oriented. It does not speak to a person's skills for employment," she said.
Both Bullock and Luddy said that no one ever warned them about potential employers checking their Facebook profiles during their senior year. In fact, aside from the "Whose Facebook is it Anyway?" program in the fall, most of the University of Richmond administration is not actively doing anything about Facebook. Both the police department and network security said they are concerned for the students' safety, but do not police Facebook.
"You certainly don't want to have a lot of opinions on there that a lot of people are going to hate," said Faigle. He advises students not to post anything on the internet to be safe. However, he said network security will not tell students what they can and can not post on Facebook.
"As long as you don't have something highly illegal on there, I don't care," he said.
Campus police have not used Facebook to investigate any cases to date, but Meador said officers will definitely use Facebook in an investigation if they think that it will be helpful.
"The way that you express yourself is up to you as long as you aren't doing anything incriminating," said Meador. "On the flipside, I hope some students are stupid enough to put incriminating things up."
While no one is actively policing Facebook profiles, many Richmond coaches suggest that athletes do not post any pictures related to drinking on their Facebook profiles. However, the athletic department does not have any specific rules that censor Facebook. Sophomore Lawerence Lessing, a member of the golf team, said athletic administrators sent an email to the athletes telling them to be careful about their information on Facebook.
"I think it's kind of ridiculous that the athletic department does this because it has nothing to do with our sport or team and it should be up to us what we want to put on there," said Lessing.
Stubbs, a member of the track team, said his coaches do not know about Facebook.
"Due to an incident with Webshots last fall, the team has put one and one together to know what to put on Facebook and what not to," he said.
Webshots.com is an online database for anyone to post their digital pictures for the public to see. No members of the track and team would comment further about the Webshots incident.
Sophomore Ali LeVine, a member of the women's soccer team, cancelled her Facebook membership after receiving warnings from her coaches.
"I quit Facebook because I didn’t want to have to worry about who besides my friends was looking at my information or pictures. The benefits didn’t outweigh the risks," she said. "I’m sure all coaches care deeply about their players and only want the best for those players and the program."
Sorority members at Richmond have clear restrictions on their Facebook profiles. They are not allowed to post pictures with alcohol or refer to alcohol in their profiles. According to Courtney Kwiatkowski, the Panhellenic president, the policy was started last year because of the national rules established by the sororities on campus. There is no similar policy for fraternities.
"It is to protect the images of our sororities and their members," she said. "Many chapters at other schools are doing the same thing."
Chapter presidents are encouraged by Panhellenic to check their members' profiles for alcohol-related material.
"They don't want any evidence against their chapter. If you think of it from a liability perspective, it's a good idea," said Meador.
Not everyone agrees.
"I understand why because you don't want to give Greek life a bad reputation. I feel like it's censoring something that is going to happen anyways. It's unnecessary and ridiculous," said Luddy, a member of Pi Beta Phi.
Bullock, a member of Kappa Sigma, said: "It's pretty ridiculous. We're in college; get over it."
Athletes and sorority members at Richmond are among many college students nationwide who have restrictions on their Facebook accounts. According to an April 27 article in the University of South Florida's "The Oracle," athletes at Loyola University Chicago are not allowed to have Facebook accounts. Athletes at Florida State University are encouraged to "rethink" what they post on Facebook. As the issue continues to grow,
more universities are acting cautiously about what their students can include in their Facebook profiles.
Despite the many concerns about Facebook, it still helps many students network. "One of the greatest things about Facebook is that it is all about networking and networking is what makes the world go round," said Dreisbach.
Luddy said: "I'm Facebook friends with people I met at interviews. It helps you keep a connection with people you meet for a day and hit it off with."
As students at Richmond keep up with the growth of Facebook and embrace its new features, the virtual friend network shows no signs of fading.