One thing that I???ve been thinking about recently is the space where digital distribution and publicly accessible sharing communities meet campus regulations in the age of the facebook and myspace. In particular I???m thinking about this in terms of party pictures.
During my time at RIT (back in the stone age of film) I was known to imbue the occasional adult beverage at printing social events. This was before RIT became a ???dry??? campus (though the ???wetness??? at the time didn???t really negate the fact that most of us were underage ??? sorry mom, it was bound to come out sooner or later). And there are definitely pictures of me doing so, along with other members of a certain professional group I was involved in. However, the circulation of those pictures (4×6 color glossies) was handled using quaint mano-to-mano technology. We???d pick them up from the developer and then pass them around at meetings, in labs, and, more often than not, at parties (while consuming more illicit adult beverages ??? oh the terrible cycle).
Fast forward a decade. Today???s students are more often than not equipped with digital cameras and sharing party pictures through various digital means. Among the possibilities for this circulation are social networking sites like afore mentioned facebook and myspace. Choosing these methods of distribution also means that those pictures are potentially available to a larger audience. And that audience may include not only peers but also administrators at the institutions that these students frequent.
So can students be busted for throwing a party after the fact if photographic evidence surfaces online? Existing precedent definitely suggest this is the case. There are currently investigations into LA nightclubs that allow underage stars to drink. And a star of the Harry Potter movies stirred up a bit of controversy when pictures of her apparently drinking a Corona surfaced online.
So while technology may facilitate rapid sharing of pictures from parties, social (or perhaps structural controls) enter into the equation.
I would hate it if a prospective employer decided to google me. Especially because I am attempting to establish some work with my real name online.
That is why on myspaz or facebook, I prefer to stay relatively anonymous and moderate the pictures people post to my comments. I cannot control what others post in their spaces, but I trust my friends. So far they haven’t posted anything to incriminating.
Always use a fair amount of discrimination when posting stuff yourself, or for others.
While the Internet certainly doesn’t have the “newness” it did for many of us in the mid-90’s, you would think the message that you can get busted, or in trouble, for what you put online would get across. Then again, people still get into the driver’s seat after drinking too much.
I think that no matter what lengths people go to make their identity secret online, someone is always going to figure them out. A good example would be the fact that my dad somehow found out I have a blog. He gave the usual, “Be careful what you post on your blog, especially about work!” speech.
And don’t bust on Emma Watson too much! She’s from England after all. Isn’t legal drinking age something like 12 over there, or am I confusing them with Buffalo, NY? /joke
I understand the fears about posting under a real name. I thought long and hard before I went down this path a while ago. And its always had an effect on how I post.
In some respects, we have limited control over the material about us (like digital pictures) that gets published. It almost seems like its a good idea to build out MySpace and Facebook pages just to be “on the offensive.” IE. make sure that you’re managing your online image correctly like Pendejo mentions.
Still even then, once its out there, its out there and you will eventually lose control over the distribution of it.