Takin' Care of Business #12

Alot has been going on in my life lately...

The whole interviewing for summer internships/practicums thing is over! I'm glad to say that from the 5 schools I talked to, I got at least one offer. I'll be going to Texas for 2 months for a NODA internship. Exciting stuff! I've never done summer orientation before, so this is going to be very new and interesting too.

This semester hasn't really set in for me. Though some of my classes were interesting to me when I read their titles, the course content has been fustrating. I hate going to class some days. My cohort has been scattered around to other classes (since now we have more liberty in choosing what classes to take), and now I'm having classes with 2nd year grads from my program as well as PhD students. I feel like I'm incompetent--again...same thing when I first started going to school here.

Then there is this other thing bugging me. I'm taking a class called "College Students and the Law" and we had to go attend this presentation at my campus about facebook, myspace, and the likes of that nature. The presenter [C.L. Lindsey] came to speak to our students in a presentation called "Online Trouble". I don't know how many times I've heard horror stories from my parents about not putting my personal information out there when I talk to strangers. They used to be very concerned about me wanting to "chat online" with friends. I was 18 at the time, and didn't know much about the world, and had internet access for the first time when I started going to college. Anyways, this guy showed us some pictures he found online of students from my campus underage drinking, playing beer pong, smoking weed, and things of that nature. He also told us of some people who "hooked up" over myspace and facebook--stories that ended with kidnap and murder. The othe big surprise was that he mentioned that it's easy to hack into people's myspace accounts, and that you can Google the instructions. My face went "??????" Also, the other thing that got me thinking--about 90,000 registered sex offenders got booted off of myspace for trying to pose as young kids. After that presentation, I contemplated deleting my myspace account. Not sure if I'm going to...I have to think it over some more.

The same thing is happening to me now. I'm being lectured constantly from people like my supervisor about what I put online. My supervisor called to my attention that I shouldn't be sharing my feelings abou summer internships on a public forum such as facebook. My supervisor says "Don't you remeber what C.L. Lindsey said in his presentation about employers checking people's facebook when they apply for jobs?" I was asked by someone about my status that day which was "...either way I'm heading back to the Lone Star State". The person asked "What's wrong with TX?" Someone else asked "Why are you moving to TX for?" (thinking that I was already done with grad school). When I replied I mentioned "I wasn't exactly aiming for the South this summer, but I'm glad I got an offer". The school that interviewed me that offered me the position...they asked during my interview why was their school #3 on my listing on the NODA website? If you're familiar with NODA, you're allowed to only pick 8 schools to apply to. To this school, #3 is high up there. And I did hold them high in standards as well. Why my boss is making a fuss over it, I have no clue? Then I limited the access of what he can see on my facebook. Not like I'm scared or anything because I have nothing to hide. I'm a good person, a good student, and a good employee...My facebook is clean. I've always had it that way. I was a student leader at my undergrad. I was a Greek and I was an RA. I know what kidn of things are not supposed to be on my profile. And it's not like I engaged in that kind of wild behavior anyways during college. I NEVER had pictures of me with alcohol or partying on my facebook. My profile has always been clean. If you would ever look my tagged pictures, the vast majority of them are of me dancing. Well...I was a dance minor. Anyone who knows me, knows that I love to dance. It says so on my profile. Now, it's not like I'm dancing up on poles or dancing on tables or things like that. Why should my pictures even cause any worry? Why would anyone want to take salsa dancing "out of context"?

At the end of last semester my classmates and I decided to have a bar crawl to celebrate our first semester completed. We made shirts and planned this out to the every possible detail. We asked ourselves about the "What ifs" and the "out of context" questions. We never mentioned what program we were, we never mentioned our institution on the shirt, we didn't invite anyone underage or who was an undergrad, we stayed away from places that undergrad students go to, we decided to have our bar crawl early during the day...we just made the mistake of taking pictures. We're grad students, ok? We don't get drunk anymore because we're too tired. Some of us were never big partyers anyways. The pictures got posted on facebook, none of them were bad. We had one picture of all of us raising our glasses to toast, we took other group photos with each other, some of them included glasses on the table of the restaurant/pubs and other places we visited. They were not bad at all. None of us really drink that much. Somehow, news of this got mentioned to the head of our department. Someone who is friends on facebook with them decided to snitch on us. Next Monday, the first year grads got an email from the head of out program asking us "whose idea was it? and that this was unethical and unprofessional behavior". I about hit the roof, because the pictures were not bad...we took a group photo, no glasses or drinks in our hands, but just because it says bar crawl on the shirt, you're going to get mad? Like really? I'm not 5 anymore. I'm not some child to be scolded at. Nonetheless, pictures were removed and untagged, our feelings a little hurt, some of us were angry, some of us didn't care because we didn't do anything wrong, some of us thought whether or not being in this field was worth it...alot of things went through our brains. It really did ruin my finals week at school.

On another note: Today I uploaded some photos from Valentine's Day. One of my neighbors (another grad) got married yesterday and I was invited to their mini reception at a restaurant. They had a DJ there playing music. Well, I took lots of pics of people dancing and things of that nature. I tagged some friends and new ones I had made at the reception. I got a message from one of the guys about taking down some pics of him dancing because he didn't want them floating in cyberspace. He mentioned how that was an "intimate" moment in his life and he didn't want his professors or his students to see them because they would take them "out of context". I understand his issue, but his photos were not bad. If he's getting down, I think there is no problem with that. I got lots of pictures where I'm doing that. It's not like he's dancing up on a table. Why do people have to freak out about this kind of stuff?

Well, I did as he requested...I deleted some of the photos he was in. I looked at my tagged photos. I had approximately 1,300 pictures of myself up on facebook. I see it as like my entire life is one there. Because I'm paranoid now with people telling me stuff about "out of context" I untagged myself from about 30 pictures: these included pictures of me where I didn't look cute, pictures of me with alcohol (a whopping total of two), and pictures of me dancing silly. I noticed I have lots of pictures of me at karaoke bars now (it's amongst my new hobbies). I don't think karaoke should be taken "out of context" despite the numerous ads for beers in the background of some of these photos. I'm at a bar, I don't have a drink in my hand--just a microphone...what do people think I'm supposed to do for fun around here? I'M 22!!!! I'm not going to sit at home at read all the time. My profile still is quite clean than other people I have seen (i.e. like some of my students).

Anyways: here's the dilemma...Despite facebook and all of its privacy settings that I already have imposed on it since way back when...and no matter how much I delete stuff from it...would I be better off without a profile to avoid any of these stupid comments from people about "Well, other professionals can take that out of context".

Should I get rid of my facebook? I'm thinking to myself "There is no way on God's earth I'm going to do that!" That's 4 years worth of my life that would be gone...4 years of building up a network, of keeping in touch with friends who are too busy to call, 4 years of good memories (the pictures), 4 years that it took to find classmates I used to be friends with in grade school, 4 years worth life--vanished (well, I don't know where my facebook info goes after it gets deleted). Should I just remove the tagged photos, the events, the groups, and photo albums from my profile and just leave the wall?

Technology, my friends, is going to be the demise of society...we have become so reliant on using the internet, our cell phones, TVs, radios, computers...when was the last time anyone wrote a letter by hand? You don't even have to send Holiday cards anymore, you can just click a button and send it as an email. The only phone number I remember on my cell phone is my parents' house, and my sister's cell phone (because she's my emergency contact person). Other than that...I don't know anyone's number by heart or have to look it up in an address book like in the old days. Technology is wonderful and great to contact people, to get things done faster, to entertain us...I just keep wondering about those people--other college students and myself--that check facebook several times a day? Honestly, what would I do without a facebook? I would have more time of my hands, but I'd be so lost. How will I know about my students' events? or campus events? or when my best friends are getting engaged? or someone had a relative who past away?