|
A GUIDE TO ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKING Back in the day to keep up with friends, you actually had to see them. To organize a party, you had to pick up the phone. To get a date, you had to have chemistry. Now, thanks to the miracle of online social networking sites, you can do all of this without taking your hands off the keyboard. FaceBook, MySpace and other online social networking sites, like much of the Internet, are great innovations!1 It offers you an opportunity to interact with an extraordinarily expansive universe of new people. The Introduction of Online Social Networking For many online social networking is nothing new. The internet was designed to make worldwide communication from one's desk possible. In the early 2000's the idea of social networking websites was founded with such sites as Friendster, Bebo, and LiveJournal. Among these sites in 2003 came a fledgling social networking site called MySpace.com. MySpace was the idea of Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe and a small team of programmers. Today MySpace.com has over 83 million accounts and is the fifth most popular website in the world.2 In 2006 Anderson and DeWolfe sold MySpace.com for an estimated 580 million dollars to Rupert Murdoch's news company which is the parent company of Fox Broadcasting who recognized the site for its potential in advertising and promotion of movies and music. 3 In 2004 a simular site designed for college students was launched by Mark Zuckerberg, a Harvard University Student. FaceBook.com, started as TheFaceBook.com, was founded by Zuckerberg to keep in touch with other students at Harvard. The website spread and within just a few weeks the majority of the Harvard campus had signed up.4 Within two months the site had spread throughout the ivy league and in 2 years the site spread to most campuses including 2000+ colleges and universities. The site is the 11th most popular in the world and has reached over 8.3 million subscribers.5 80 percent of a schools student population are typically registered on FaceBook with 85 percent or more logging on weekly.6 In addition to colleges and universities, however, FaceBook opened a high school section in 2005, and has opened to even those not students anywhere if they are invited by an already registered user in 2006. The Good, The Bad, The Ugly FaceBook, MySpace, and other social networking sites are great tools. They allow users the opportunity to connect with an infinite number of people both locally and worldwide providing networking opportunities previous generations could not even fathom. Our basic humanity is for better and for worse, however. It is vulnerable to context, circumstance and interpretation. And so it is important to remember that FaceBook creates as many obligations as it does opportunities.7 This is not meant to scare the reader but who can ignore the huge number of negative news stories surrounding such social networking. Such reports have ranged from employees being punished or dismissed for "blogging" on these social networks to people being not hired because of the image that they portrayed on their social networking page. We neither can ignore the horrific stories of child pornography, sexual assault, etc. that has occurred through initial contact through social networking websites. Finally, for a university, we cannot ignore the case of Taylor Behl a 17 year old freshman at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Taylor, was from our own local small town Vienna, VA. In an attempt to make new friends online before going off to college made connections with potential friends at VCU through MySpace. Sadly though, less than one month into the Fall Semester Taylor was sexually assaulted and brutally murdered through one such connection. Be Safe Protect yourself against sexual assault, stalking, identity theft, and burglary by not posting personal information. Never give out any personal information such as your address, birth date, class schedules, study schedules, or phone numbers. Use privacy settings to help control who can access your information. Many sites, including FaceBook and MySpace, allow you to restrict the availability of your profile to certain individuals. While these settings provide no guarantees, they can be a useful tool in gaining some control of your details and photos. Be Smart Drinking, drugs, lewd behavior, and even hazing issues have recently surfaced across the nation as posted by students in these online social networks. "I don't know when partying and behavior got connected to cameras, but kids are taking pictures of everything they are doing and posting them on the internet," Don McPherson, former standout Syracuse quarterback and now director of the Sports Leadership Institute at Adelphi University.8 If you wouldn’t post it in your local newspaper, don’t post it online. Posting something on the internet is just as open and available to others as posting something on the front page of your local newspaper. If you do not your mother, your father, or your grandmother to read it or see it then don't post it. Your online profile may be the only impression someone has of you. While close friends may know you’re joking about something you’ve posted, your future employer and others who stumble across your profile may only have that information to gauge who you are. 80 percent of employers report that they are doing internet searches of potential new employees, over 40 percent are searching FaceBook. Make sure that the image you’re projecting online is one that accurately represents you, and think twice before posting it. Remember too that companies such as Google cache the internet on a daily basis, including social networking sights daily. So something you post for a day or two as a joke might just get cached and be available for view by others indefinitely. Be Civil The University will not control or monitor its network for content as a general practice including online social networking. Mason is very proud of its many policies in support of all basic rights including freedom of speech and expression. Indeed the University supports the idea of institutions of higher education being a true "market place of ideas." However, freedom of speech and expression stop where inappropriate behavior begin. Civility matters (even on the internet). We are all members of the University community and there are responsibilities that go along with that. George Mason University expects students to be positive members of the college community, and that community extends even into cyberspace. Examples of such uncivil behavior include threats, harassment, and even sexual harassment. Policy On Social Networking The George Mason University Judicial Code clearly covers behavior both on and off campus. Whether on campus, off campus, Timbuktu or cyberspace a students conduct is actionable. Contrary to popular belief Mason does not “police” online social networks for possible violations. However, the University will answer all complaints and reports of alleged misconduct whether on campus, off campus, or online. Questions and Comments Questions and/or comments in regards to social networking please do not hesitate to contact us. If we do not have the answer we will do our best to find it or point you in the direction of someone who does. Reports of Misconduct Through Social Networking To report incidents of alleged misconduct that have occurred through social networking or other electronic means or any other alleged misconduct please contact us or University Police immediately. Also remember the longer you wait the harder the case is for us to work. Evidence can also be removed often at the click of the mouse. If possible print any evidence we might need. If you have been threatened are assaulted or feel unsafe or threatened in any way you should contact police immediately. References:
|
 |
Office of |
Skip Navigation |
