Archives - Current Events: Page 5
Author: kalanidream (Thu May 25, 2006 4:43 pm)
Title: Adding High School Students to Facebook: Good or bad?
Facebook.com is a social community for college student across the world. This epidemic of college profiles and online hook ups is the college version of the sicking popularity of Myspace.com. The diffrence between myspace.com and Facebook.com is the fact that only college students with a valid college email address can apply for a profile, at least that was until a month ago.
Recently the creators of facebook have added the high school masses to the website, allowing them to create profiles and intereact with the college crowd. For the high school kiddies this is a fun and great idea, for the college student it is a new annoyance.
Some male college students like the idea because it is easy to scout out the "fresh meat" before it arrives at the "market". Others students say its an extra way to add drama and unnecessary note sending to people. Personally I can do without the kiddie crushes and aggravating emails, but what about you
I agree, high school should have never been introduced to the recipe that is Facebook. They took something that was already insanely popular, and messed it up. The sad part about the situation is that no one will stop using Facebook. The creators are free to change layouts, designs, and entire networks because their users are like drug addicts who can't kick the habit. The introduction of high school drama into the college scene is a horrible idea. Your comment regarding the arrival of "fresh meat at the market" is highly accurate though. This is yet another reason why high school and college networks should remain separate. Can anyone say statutory rape?
From a corporate stand point, Adding highschools to facebook gives facebook a larger demographic to sell to advertisers. From the view point of college men students who may not agree with the addition, it is up to you to accept friend request and you are able to restrict access of your profile, messaging or other wise to just people who are your friends. Yes there is an added risk of minors having relations with those 18 and older but unlike myspace where a person can be anyone because no verification is needed, facebook forces you to at least verify school ID. But think of the benefits. Most highschool seniors come into college during the summer and fall not know anything or anyone. They are unprepared for college men and most of the time get taken advantage of. With the access to the college world they will be exposed to the evils of college and may even pick up some advice from older college women cutting down on things such as freshman pregnancy and STDs.
I agree that from a business standpoint, it makes logical sense to expand the demographics of Facebook. With that said, just because it makes money, doesn't mean it is in the best interest of the people. I highly doubt that access to Facebook is going to protect any incoming freshman from the evils of college life. If anything, it will only serve to make them more anxious to get to college, get wasted, and make bad choices. What made Facebook unique was its approach to networking that differentiated it from Myspace. With the addition of high schoolers to the formula, it is only one more fated step toward a cheap Myspace knock-off. The difference this time around? Facebook won't sell for $580 Million.
The funny thing is that myspace.com started out as something just for certain people. Then it expanded. Now we have adults trying to get with children/ their students on myspace. I don't want facebook to turn into a feeding ground for desperate college guys.
I am sure that before signing up with my space there is a disclaimer that says "children make sure you have your parents permission before creating a profile" At that point the responsibility falls on the parents. Personally those who would go for underaged girls need help, but if the girl is 18 and preparing to enter college then she is an adult and can make her own decisions as to which guy she will talk to online or otherwise.
They could always change the name to "Rapebook" I guess, right?
LOL....THAT WAS LAME
haha, hey I'm on your side.
If they are 18 which many highschool seniors are, then it is perfectly legal.
I didn't say Statutory rape, i just said rape, which can occur at any age.
Are you saying that facebook is increasing the possibility for college women to be raped?
Well it is a tough decision to make really. Facebook definitely allows older college men the chance to prey on younger, easily controlled college women. Whether we can trace that to actual instances of rape or not would be debatable. I would say that it does increase the frequency of rapes, although these are rarely ever reported to the police. Statistics involving rape cases are very hard to accurately measure because of this.
The key word in your post is "college women" Which mean they are adults with the capacity to understand all their actions. Have you ever gave consideration that these young "victims" go looking for these older men via facebook. When i came into college many of the freshman were after older football players and prospective doctors, hoping to get a paycheck.
In such cases my response is, they deserve what they get. I'm just concerned with the fact that Facebook might just make it easier to link these college women who are probably more accurately described as college girls, with older guys with one thing on their minds. But I don't know, just a thought. The ones who aren't responsible enough will probably find a way to do it anyway.