Kirsten Sharaf / Roundup
“Kirsten is hung over but had a great weekend and is now cozy in bed with him,” is what my status on Facebook currently reads. If you didn’t know me, you could draw all sorts of conclusions from it.
Of course, I like to go out with my friends and party, and spending time with my boyfriend is very important to me, but it does not define how I am professionally nor academically.
Universities as well as employers have taken it upon themselves to now request that a prospective student or employee list a link to their Facebook and MySpace on their application. Colleges are sifting through the rubble of party students to make sure they give scholarships to those who will uphold the academic standards of the school.
Who is to say that a person who enjoys their weekends or an occasional drink is ill-equipped to take on that scholastic pressure?
I pride myself on upholding a GPA that is consistently above a 3.0, but my Facebook would suggest otherwise when just looked upon superficially.
Universities are not the only ones guilty of spying.
Corporate companies are also taking the “peeping tom” approach and requesting this information. Should an employer judge you based on that one night you went out and took some risqué pictures?
Absolutely not.
It is extremely unethical to judge a person’s social life by a networking site and it is total invasion of privacy. Facebook and MySpace were created to allow students, specifically college students, to mingle and interact with each other.
It is a place to showcase memories and broadcast the fun you are having. It is in no way meant to lend itself as a spying tool. Members of these online services are given the option of deciding whether they want to keep their profile private, which allows only their friends to see it, or publicize it for anyone to view.
I created my accounts to keep in touch with friends, so my profiles have always been private — reassuring that only they see it. A public profile would ensure that strangers could keep tabs on everything I do and could potentially result in some unwanted attention from random viewers.
With the amount of college applications filed each year, it makes you wonder how the staff is capable of finding the time to do such research. They should be more concerned with the grades you are upholding and what you have to offer them.
Personal and professional lives should be kept apart. This world is full of enough judgment and we do not need to fuel that fire by allowing someone to pre-judge another person before they have met them.
This country fought for our right to free speech and we should take advantage of it. If a college could throw out all of my academic accomplishments due to a silly picture and occasional profanity, then I wouldn’t want to represent their school anyway.
