Facebook...

[dizzid]

I'm pretty sure that most of us have "private" pages but now that we are about to begin our careers has anyone thought of making some additional changes or deletion altogether?

A part of me is unrepentant and as I have no desire to run for public office, unashamed. I cleaned up my page a year or so ago (thanks Mom for socialnetworking) but still have a few items that might be questionable... I'm not sure new friends/colleagues need to see "SB2008PBC" or judge my friends who just can't stop themselves from doing inappropriate things when they see a camera.

Am I the only one with this problem? Thoughts? Solutions?

[abc123xtc]

I am actually worried about future students friending me than I am about that... But I keep my Facebook pretty non-offensive and clean as a rule anyway.

I'm not sure what the solution to your problem would be, honestly. Keeping it private seems like the best route. You don't have to add anyone you don't want to add.

[tt503]

I don't have anything particularly incriminating on mine, and mine is set on private settings. I also have various lists of privacy, where my good friends can see all my status updates (where I may quote a certain rap lyric or two...that's about as "risque" as my page gets) but certain colleagues (and former professors) are on limited access.

I have an academia.edu page set up that usually is one of the first results if someone googles me and is more of my professional network than facebook (or linkedin).

[ThisSlumgullionIsSoVapid]

I thought about this but the only thing that would be "judged" on my facebook would be some pictures I posted that are (to me) pretty funny but to others could be offensive. I also tend to post some pretty opinionated political rants every now and then but it shouldn't really be an issue. If they're my "friend" then they should already know how I am as a person in terms of how opinionated I am and how my views are aligned. I'd be iffy of approving a faculty member (or grad student) if they haven't had any real conversations with me to get to know me as a person yet (or if I thought they'd be offended by political/religion rants).

I'm sure Goffman would have loved to chime in on the social networking era.

Edited March 4, 2012 by ThisSlumgullionIsSoVapid

[Darth.Vegan]

I have really radical politics and comment on things often but I keep everything to friends only so I'm not worried.

I certainly wouldn't mind keeping in touch with some folks from here on Facebook. You can PM me if you're interested. I am not inclined to post it here.

Edited March 4, 2012 by xdarthveganx

[sleepycat]

While my profile is pretty locked down, I tend to report my emotional rollercoaster ride so it is the only thing that I shouldn't be posting and I try not to post them anymore. i don't go out with friends that use their cameras very often, so I don't have a lot of pictures of me up. Basically if it something I don't want online in the first place I don't post it. I also changed my last name on my profile a bit so searches don't pop up, but people still know who I am. I also like controlling who wants to be friends so usually I send requests out.

I just googled myself and just my profiles to HASTAC, Facebook ( I made two a long time ago by accident), G+, and LinkedIn come up so it is a positive search.

[avee]

I definitely don't have anything I am ashamed of on my Facebook profile, and am actually friends with a lot of colleagues and professors. And in regards to students who friend request you, you should never accept. I've run into this problem, and I've made it clear that I won't accept any friend requests from students who are actively enrolled in my courses. It's a conflict of interest.

[sciencegirl]

I treat my FB account like its completely open (ie, if your mom saw it you would not have any embarrassment) - no posts that are very personal or offensive, just fun news things and an occasional update on what I am up to. Part of this is that some professors seem to really like using facebook, and so do other grad students - seems like another way people network, which is really important in grad school. (Its easy to find someone after a conference etc on facebook and say hi).

[socieconomist]

I definitely don't have anything I am ashamed of on my Facebook profile, and am actually friends with a lot of colleagues and professors. And in regards to students who friend request you, you should never accept. I've run into this problem, and I've made it clear that I won't accept any friend requests from students who are actively enrolled in my courses. It's a conflict of interest.

Above goes for me as well. I've also been an adjunct prof for a little over 2 years at this point & I do not accept active student friend req's but after they're not in my courses, I have no prob accepting former student friend req's....assuming i actully liked them - lol. - my fb wall isn't much used for personal stuff unless it's professionally related anyway; It's basically a political blog.

[sciencegirl]

Anyone else catch this article on facebook that came out today? After reading this, I'm now very inclined to suggest for everyone that whatever you post on facebook should be something that you wouldn't mind having a student, employer, parent read. I actually don't see friending a student as a conflict of interest as long as you friend all students and make that policy known to your classes (a professor I know does this and says its a great way to keep someone's facebook page strictly "business/school related" and not "personal"). I also know that for personal stuff, friends have a second fake account with mismatching names and absolutely no connection to that person's school as a solution to have the more "personal" facebook account.

This article was really surprising - that coaches, schools and employers are now asking candidates access to their "private" facebook accounts:

http://redtape.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/06/10585353-govt-agencies-colleges-demand-applicants-facebook-passwords

[Darth.Vegan]

Holy hell. I don't drink or anything like that, so there are no pictures of me in problematic situations. But I am very outspoken, I would not want my facebook to be seen by just anyone. I would have to go on a deleting rampage if that happened to me. haha. Or maybe not, I am friends with a couple of my professors now, and no one seems shocked by my commentary. They pretty much all know that I have green-anarcho-feminist politics, so maybe it just doesn't matter. But I would certainly feel very exposed if I was asked to give my login info to a grad school.

Edited March 6, 2012 by xdarthveganx

[ThisSlumgullionIsSoVapid]

This article was really surprising - that coaches, schools and employers are now asking candidates access to their "private" facebook accounts:

http://redtape.msnbc...ebook-passwords

Ya I've read something about that. Except, what they're doing is against facebooks terms of service. I believe I've read an article of an application asking for someones log in so they could see if they were professional online (obviously a clear break of the terms of service). You aren't to give out your private information to anyone and even then if it was going to be forced upon me I was just delete the facebook and reinstate it months later after already getting the job (and changing the name when I do so).

[Darth.Vegan]

I am relatively "googleable," but I have been working on cleaning up my internet presence for some time now. I also have a personal website that explains my academic experience and an academia.edu account, both are the first thing that pop up when you google my name.

[jenjenjen]

Haha i was loathe to chime in seeing as everyone else took such a professional approach to facebook, but mine, too, is pretty terrible. While I have high protections on, I also have about 800 friends and 2000 photos tagged of me. And while you'd have to be rather committed to search past all the photos of me travelling, graduating, and posing in the "sorority squat," I'm sure there are some in there in which I am clearly less than sober. Or dressed up for the unfortunately misogynistic and even boderline racist themed fraternity parties (think cowboys and indians, not black face). Also lots where I'm in a swimsuit... ugh I'm going through it now. And while I don't post anything one would be easily offended by, it's pretty easy to tell I'm of the liberal persuasion. But no off color jokes or the like...

Basically I think I would come off as fairly juvenile. And ridiculous. But when this was gradually being created over my highschool/undergrad days I WAS juvenile and ridiculous. And I kinda enjoyed it. So I don't really want to take it all down, and it's still my best way of keeping in touch with quite a large number of people. That being said, I don't friend faculty, older grad students, nor students of my own. But due to the whole 800 friends and all their friends-of-friends, it's probably not as private as I'd like to think. Sigh... well at least you all have given me some impetus to prune my friends list and perhaps clean up my photos from freshman year.

[ThisSlumgullionIsSoVapid]

^ If you go to preview profile you can see what it looks like to the average person trying to search your profile and you can see what it looks like to various people. It gives an option where you can type in their name and see your profile the way the see it. That's how I check what's visible in mine all the time.

[Darth.Vegan]

^ If you go to preview profile you can see what it looks like to the average person trying to search your profile and you can see what it looks like to various people. It gives an option where you can type in their name and see your profile the way the see it. That's how I check what's visible in mine all the time.

This. Do it.