The Facebook Backlash

Recent reports of the ill effects social networking sites are having on users when others get hold of the information, has led to debates as to whether these websites are now victims of their own success.

Following the backlash that resulted from Oxford University professors using students’ Facebook pages to deal out punishment to those who caused damage to university property, reports are now questioning whether social networking sites are now causing more harm than good for their users. Photos of students covered in shaving foam and causing havoc from their Facebook pages were used as evidence against them. This follows other instances of social networking websites being exploited against their users, such as the claim that one in five companies now regularly check applicants profiles on Facebook as a selection tool, and that many lose out on jobs as a result of what is written there.

Other instances include Miss New Jersey, who may be stripped of her crown after revealing photos were found on her Facebook page. And further events reported number the school students who were banned from a trip following the negative remarks they had made about teachers being found online, and the teaching student from a university in Pennsylvania who was denied her degree and accused of endorsing under-age drinking when a photo of her entitled ‘drunken pirate’ was found on Facebook. These are just some of the increasing number of events involving Facebook and similar sights that are being reported on a regular basis, such as the students from DePauw University in Indiana who were caught defacing a deer statue on campus from pictures on Facebook.

Cries have been heard from all over about the invasion of privacy these teachers and employers are enacting, although others have argued that if this information is open to public consumption is it really private? Whatever you think, you’d be wise not to reveal everything on these social networking sites as you never know who might look at it that you’d rather not!

Sources:

Times Online