Facebook and You

1
Facebook and You

• What students at Diversity College need to know

2
What is Facebook?

• According to Facebook.com Facebook is an online
  directory that connects people through social
  networks at schools.
• Facebook is a way for students to connect with
  people they know, go to school with, share
  interests with and more
• There are two versions of Facebook currently, the
  original version designed for colleges and
  universities and a newer version targeted for
  high school students

3
Facebook a brief and tumultuous history

• Founded in February 2004
• Founders
• Mark Zuckerberg
• Eduardo Saverin
• Dustin Moskovitz
• Chris Hughes
• All were students at Harvard College at the time
• Lawsuit from website ConnectU
• Alleged that Zuckerberg had stolen the idea while
  employed by their company

4
Facebook Today

• All four of the original founders left Harvard to
  pursue Facebook.com full-time in Palo Alto
• It is estimated that over 2,000 colleges and
  universities are supported by Facebook and more
  than 25,000 high schools
• More than 6 million college student accounts
  already exist and it is projected that 20,000
  profiles are added each day
• (Statistics retrieved from http//en.wikipedia.org
  /wiki/Facebook_(website) on February 17, 2006)

5
What current college students are saying about
Facebook

• Our team conducted a survey and found
• 81 said they use Facebook at least once a day
• 77 had been contacted by someone they did not
  know through Facebook
• 44 felt that Facebook has a negative impact on
  their academic work
• The most common advice these students provided
  for students new to Facebook was
• To be cautious about what information is posted
  on your profile

6
Components of Facebook

• Personal Profile
• Personal Information
• Photo
• Groups
• Class Schedule
• Wall

7
Components of Facebook

• Friends
• Who can be friends?
• From YOUR school, from OTHER schools
• Current students, alumni/ea, faculty, staff, etc
• Anyone who has a abcde_at_diversity.edu e-mail
  address can register for Facebook
• How do you become friends?
• Request an acknowledgment of friend status

8
Components of Facebook

• Details and Social Timeline
• Friend Details
• How you know this person
• Lived together, worked together,
  organizations/teams, took a course together,
  summer/study abroad program, went to school
  together (preschool, elementary school, middle
  school, high school, college, grad school),
  family, through a friend, through Facebook, met
  randomly, hooked up, dated
• Social Timeline
• Uses friend details to construct a timeline for
  the user
• Displays groups, friends and more that the user
  was connected to through Facebook by year

9
Components of Facebook

• Groups and Groupies
• Thousands of groups can be joined by members of
  Facebook
• I love Harry Potter
• Procrastinators UniteTomorrow!!
• Student Government Association _at_ Diversity
  College
• You can also become a groupie of a group if you
  know a certain amount of people with membership
  in that group
• The groupie feature can be turned off in the
  privacy settings

10
Components of Facebook

• Events
• Groups and individual Facebook users can create,
  post and invite others to events
• Johns 20th Birthday Bash
• Sorority Recruitment Informational Meeting
• Fusion Hall Council Meeting
• Personal invitations can be sent or the event can
  be listed as open to anyone
• There is also and RSVP feature for Facebook
  events

11
Components of Facebook

• Facebook Messages
• Internal e-mail-type component of Facebook
• Messages can be sent from any Facebook user to
  another, regardless of school or friend status
• Poke Feature
• This feature sends a message via Facebook to
  another user stating that he or she has been
  poked by that person, then the option to poke
  back is provided
• There is no specific purpose to the poke
• Considered flirting by some, or simply a joke
  between friends

12
Components of Facebook

• The Facebook Wall
• Each individual and group profile can have a wall
• Essentially a message board where other users can
  post public messages on a users profile
• Can be edited by the person whose profile the
  message is posted
• The message writers Facebook picture appears
  next to their message

13
Components of Facebook

• Photo Features
• Profile Photo
• Appears on the users profile page, attached to
  messages and other things the user does on
  Facebook
• My Photo Page
• Allows the user to post albums of pictures
• The user can label the people in the pictures and
  provide descriptions of what is occurring in the
  picture
• The user can also tag the people in the
  picture, which ties the image to that users
  profile in an additional photo section

14
Components of Facebook

• Other components
• Advertisment can be purchased by students or
  corporations
• Generates revenue for Facebook
• Pulse Page
• Has Top Ten lists generated from the Facebook
  community and other trend driven features

15
Facebook The Good

• Its FREE!
• Thousands of groups
• Can help you find others who share your
  interests, hobbies, major, etc.
• Academics
• Find students enrolled in your classes to form
  study groups
• Locate friends
• From home, high school, and other places who you
  have lost touch with

16
Facebook The Bad

• Procrastination Tool
• Most students who use Facebook state that it can
  serve as a distraction from school work and other
  responsibilities
• Feeling of safe and private playground for
  students
• In fact many people other than students can
  access Facebook profiles

17
Facebook The Ugly

• Internet Stalking
• Personal information such as address, phone
  number and class schedule can provide many tools
  to individuals interesting in keeping tabs on
  someone
• Incriminating and questionable photos tagged to
  your profile by you or others
• Schools and police may use as evidence
• Can be used by employers who are interested in
  background information

18
But no one will see it later, right?

• Maybemaybe not!
• There are companies that are collecting
  everything that is posted to the internet
• Companies could purchase access to such
  information, allowing pages that have since been
  removed to still be seen

19
Other Internet Technologies to be aware of

• MySpace, Friendster, XuQa
• Similar to Facebook
• Livejournal, Blog, and many others
• Online journal pages
• WebCT, Blackboard
• Online component to academics, internet support
  for courses
• AIM, MSN Messenger, etc.
• Internet messaging programs

20
What should I do?

• Be smart!
• Dont post information you would not be
  comfortable with strangers having access
• Dont post information that you would not want
  your mom, your teachers, the police, etc to see
• Think about how something could be interpreted,
  or misinterpreted, by others
• It might seem like a joke to you and your
  friends, but could be seen as serious by others
• Dont be afraid to edit or delete things posted
  to your wall or photos tagged by others

21
What should I do?

• Utilize Facebooks Privacy Settings
• 3 levels of privacy as well as a custom setting
• Blocking feature to keep individuals from being
  able to see your profile or contact you
• Allows you to control who can view your profile
  and what aspects of your profile those people can
  see
• Features can be turned off, such as the groupie
  feature and your wall

22
Diversity College wants you to be safe and have
fun!

• Diversity College will not police your use of
  the internet
• Butif information is brought forth about
  activities in violation of school policy or
  state/federal law, Diversity College is obligated
  to act
• Diversity College asks that you use Facebook and
  other internet programs and resources for good
  and not evil

23
Information for this presentation was found at
the following sites

• www.facebook.com
• www.myspace.com
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_(website)
• Survey conducted by Diversity Colleges Facebook
  Taskforce
• Also check out Diversity Colleges student
  conduct code found at www.diversitycollege.edu