Should College Students Have Facebook? By Sir Buzz-Killington

By Chad Anthony on January 25, 2014

In today’s social media opulence, an internet user has an unprecedented ability to detail their lives for the masses.  You can tweet inspirational quotes and insta-post a picture of the glorious sunset.  If that’s not your style, don’t fret!  You could rise to fame through six-second videos.  The potential to “meet your soul-mate” has never been higher with dating websites for any and all specifications.

I’m still struggling with the concept of internet dating sites.  Apparently, it’s super popular.

Social media sites should respectfully tip their hats toward the company that began the snowball effect: Facebook.  Mr. Zuckerberg, facebook.com/4, is the CEO and founder of the conglomerate.  FB’s popularity relatively limited itself to the college community in 2004.    After a few updates and format changes, that popularity skyrocketed.

Image from mi9.com

Iceland used Facebook to assist in rewriting their constitution.
After Iceland split from Denmark in 1944, Iceland utilized a slightly adapted version of Denmark’s own constitution.

A tick over 300,000 Icelanders are on Facebook.  To gather feedback from its residents, Iceland turned to Facebook to be their middleman in legislative reform.  Individuals submit their full name and address along with the suggestion, which is then reviewed by a local committee.  The council then receives the recommendations and an online discussion begins.

Your information is readily available.
Facebook was cited as a factor in close to one third of divorces in 2011.  Yes, your profile is password protected; however, it isn’t necessarily difficult to bypass.  The spouse could just wait for their significant other to slip up and forget to click that red X.  Most statements referenced chatting inappropriately with other users.  Can someone say “dic-tures”?

Facebook will pay you to uncover bugs.
No, this isn’t a Ghostbusters fantasy come to life.  The information page on Facebook clearly states that if you responsibly uncover a bug in the system – that compromises the integrity, security, or collection of information – the company will grant a minimum monetary reward of $500.  From a marketing and safety-of-privacy standpoint, a monetary reward is a genius solution to attract a communal relationship between the users and creators.  This reflects the intrinsic reason Facebook exists: to connect individuals while promoting and fostering beneficial, supportive relationships.

My grandmother has a Facebook.  And your grandmother [probably] is on Facebook, reader.  Originally, I was strangely opposed because of my initially limited mental view, “Wait, my grandma doesn’t know anything about the internets.  Only my generation should have a profile!”  Oh, how I laugh at my former self.  Facebook is a great way for individuals of earlier generations to keep updated on their families.

Throughout an individual’s life, family members and friends will pass away.  It’s a fact.  Having Facebook opens up a virtual world that is ever expanding, while the physical world grows older.  What I don’t agree with is my 8 year old cousin having a Facebook.  Opening up a child’s mind to that level of information availability can be detrimental.  A troubled classmate could show your son or daughter a video that isn’t appropriate.  You’re essentially foregoing the parental responsibility of controlling what your child is exposed to.  Try explaining “2 Girls 1 Cup” to a 9 year old.

Should college students even have a Facebook?  After ironically using Facebook to pool responses from peers, my friends and I came up with some pretty compelling reasons.

Image from Woodinvillepediatrics.com

1. Procrastination in pictures; it all starts with FB.
Once in class, I have to make a conscious decision to not open up that deadly tab.  The site is a go-to for tuning out in any sort of educational environment.  It’s almost sad, really.  The incessant need to see what everyone else is doing takes away from the immediate world around you.  Yes, sharing your thought or picture with friends, co-workers, and family connects people.  But when phones become the centerpiece for personal interaction, review your priorities.  Oh, and that keg stand you did last weekend at that frat party can be seen by all your friends.  That’s including your grandmother.  And grandmas never believe their “precious little darlings” consume that toxic waste!  Sorry, grandma.

Hat tip to Gregory John Vitale (Fourth year bio-psychology and English double major at Tufts University)
Hat tip to Sarah Brenner (Fourth year sports management major at University of Michigan) 

2. Why so serious?
What goes on Facebook is immediately available for destruction.  Seeing guys or gals “like” a relationship status change is one of the more petty actions taking place through FB.  We allow this entity to control how and when we receive and perceive information.  We allow other’s posts, comments, and pointless banter to influence our own opinions prior to our own cursory research.  Hooray for groupthink!

Hat tip to Megan Triscari (Fourth year environmental science and policy major at Florida State University)
Hat tip to Meredith Mahlke (Fourth year chemical engineering major at University of Dayton)

3. Maybe it’s not all that bad, old friend.
Gabrielle Therese, reporter for the New York Post and fourth year at St. Johns University studying mass communications, stated:

“Facebook is a PHENOMENAL resource for college students. As a student who lives 20 hours from home, with        friends, contacts, former classmates, and colleagues scattered all across the country (and world now),  Facebook allows me to keep in touch with the people I rarely see and it makes me feel like we are still close in  a way. That whole Keep In Touch thing that everyone writes in school yearbooks comes alive on Facebook … you can’t expect people from our generation to pick up the phone and say “Hey Chad! Haven’t seen you since we graduated three and half years ago, but I just wanted to call and say hi and see how you’re doing!”  But, what we can do is learn about each other’s lives through Facebook and keep in touch that way, like I am doing now!”

What we can learn from this is, like everything else in this world, Facebook should be used in moderation.  Be the subject of your own experiment.  Measure productivity levels week by week with fluctuating times of usage.  One week with FB.  One week without.  Who knows, you could unlock the answer to balancing life’s stress in an overly-technologically driven society.  If anything, people may stop inviting you to “Lo$+ #’s” pages.

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