Students Competing For Slots At Elite Colleges Resorting To "Facebook Sabotage"
Students competing to get into the nation's most elite colleges and universities have begun to use sneaky, under-handed tactics involving Facebook, according to a new report from the Chicago Tribune. Via anonymous letters mailed to college admission offices, applicants suggest to admission officers that they check out the photos on a rival's Facebook page before determining whether or not to accept them into the institution. With competition for spots fiercer than ever, the experts cited in that article believe this marks the beginning of a new trend: "Facebook sabotage."
Unflattering photos and videos and others of questionable taste have long been a part of the social network landscape. Sometimes these images have been used by students to hurt each other by disparaging people's character, getting the other kids into trouble with their parents (or the law), or just flat-out embarrassing them. But up until recently, these type of incidents didn't have much of a lasting effect beyond the dramatic teenage years of their high school existence.
But now, with these types of sabotage schemes potentially affecting students' shots at their future plans by interfering with which colleges they're able to attend, the question being raised is this: will Gen Y finally learning the perils of over-sharing?
The Situation
According to the report, college admissions officers are seeing an increase in sabotage attempts that come in the form of anonymous letters that say that rivals have cheated on exams, got suspended for underage drinking, or suggest that the college check out the applicant's Facebook page. Sadly, some of these letters aren't even written by the students themselves, but the uber-competitive parents who want to help their own child's chances by any means possible.
A high school guidance counselor in New York, Sue Moller, recently posted a message to the National Association for College Admission Counseling message board in hopes of confirming a rumor one of her students told her. She wanted to know if college officials were receiving these types of letters. She was surprised to receive over a dozen replies.
Because the number of letters, calls, and emails aren't tracked, it's hard to determine if the volume is really increasing, but Bill Fitzsimmons, Harvard's admissions dean believes that "if it is more competitive than before, then perhaps more of it is going on. People are willing to lie in order to do better in what they consider to be a difficult competition."
Does It Work?
Some college officials stated that they will only follow-up on signed letters, but others admitted that they investigate any allegations, even in sent in anonymously.
Although the article notes that some letters hint towards Facebook pages specifically, it's just as likely that others point to MySpace profiles, online photos, blog posts, or other public content a student has posted to the net. But we have wonder how prevalent this type of sabotage really is. Facebook profiles (by default) can't be viewed unless a person accepts a friendship request, so the damage done via Facebook should be minimal.
Being Professional On Social Networks
This news of college submission sabotage comes on the heels of the recent NPR interview regarding Facebook and career-seeking. In the interview, it was noted that CareerBuilder found one in five employers do check Facebook profiles when researching a job candidate. They also discovered that one third of those checked were rejected due to photos with alcohol or drugs.
But before everyone rushes out to their online profiles and starts deleting away, it's worth taking a moment to consider how serious this "potential threat" is to you. Even if you're a student looking for college acceptance or a business professional going after a new job, there's no reason not to maintain an online presence. Done correctly, making your name "googleable" can actually help your chances, not hurt them. By tweaking your current online profiles, you can highlight your professional interests instead of your party photos.
Facebook especially allows for fine-grained privacy controls if you're concerned about who's seeing what. You don't necessarily have to remove photos - just adjust who is allowed to view them. Or, if you want to really dress up your Facebook profile, an app like Professional Profile can help by importing your resume or LinkedIn connections. In fact, there are a number of ways to keep your Facebook profile professional.
Unfortunately, the one drawback of Facebook is that you don't have the option of approving the photos that others tag you in. That means you must be constantly monitoring the photos you've been tagged in to make sure nothing embarrassing shows up that could harm your chances. For a social network that so greatly concerns itself with privacy in other areas, the lack of a preventative control here is a surprising omission.
Social networks have made public a lot of personal information you may not have wanted exposed, but in the end you must realize that you have control over your profiles. You can have them showcase your professional attributes, if you wish. And if they ever get out of hand, just remember...there's always the "delete" button.
Image credit: SVG Creations
Comments
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I'm not surprised to be hearing this. College admissions is so competitive that kids and more or less parents would do anything to go to the college of their choice. What's concerning is if parents are involved. That's just wrong. Besides the fact that sabotaging is wrong, I don't see the purpose. You can try to sabotage a few kids, but there are thousands who are applying. How could this deceitful tactic even work? Some college admissions or businesses check Facebook and that could potentially have an impression. Maybe people will realize everything they reveal about their personal life on the web, probably shouldn't be there.
Craig
www.budgetpulse.com
It would be sabotage if these letters pointed to fake information. But if the information are indeed valid, how could this be considered sabotage? It actually should be considered a service to society.
What's most sad is that these careless people who have no respect for men or women can get away with it and actually be valued for it. Society as whole is ill to the point where the most popular people are those that get into trouble and are into drugs and promiscuous behaviour.
Interesting post re: sabotage. The thought that someone is vindictive enough to sabotage another's college options is a bit disgusting. I have a good friend in college admissions and she says that their admissions team does google all of the applicants that make it to the final cut. Teens looking to go to college, and 20 somethings hitting the job market, need to be very aware of what they post online.
Re: Facebook and tagged photos -- while you don't get to approve photos before someone tags you in them, you are notified every time someone tags a photo of you. You can then remove the tag promptly if you do not like it.
"Facebook profiles can't be viewed unless a person accepts a friendship request..."
WRONG, WRONG, WRONG AS CAN BE.
Users decide WHO can see their profiles and HOW MUCH they can see. You CAN and people DO set their profiles so ANYONE on Facebook can see them. On the flip-side, you CAN set it so that only your Friends can view your profile (or portions of it).
Get your facts straight or don't bother.
While I agree that people DO need to be careful what they post online, I have to wonder, is THIS level of competition an American thing?
Because I've never heard of downright sociopathic tactics being used to get into college...then again, I also didn't go to a "highly competitive" school. Didn't see the point. Spent less money, was pretty much guaranteed acceptance and learned what I needed to know.
Then again, in my country, the biggest competition comes from, well, American students since they're given preference due to the fact that our colleges charge them double for tuition....and yet it still comes out cheaper than if they'd attended an American college.
@Mike I added "by default" to clarify. Thanks for pointing that out so nicely. :)
@Sarah
Please don't take reader's criticisms so personally. I realize *we* commenters can be rude (to semi-abusive), but we obviously hold RRW in high regard or we wouldn't be here anyway. Feedback, negative or positive, is a good thing and hopefully you will utilize it to its fullest. I've certainly bagged some of the other RRW contributors (maybe even you), and while it usually can be phrased to be more constructive, sometimes errors strike a nerve.
RRW puts out lots of great original content, rarely link-baits, and minimally follows the techmeme-hype news cycle. Rude, anonymous comments are better (not ad hominem attacks) than the self-promoting, semi-relevant comments I often come across here (and I find troubling,)imo.
Take the criticism in stride and use to your advantage :)
Or, *gasp* how about a good dose of clean living? Or has that been completely forgotten in the hedonistic frenzy of 21st century "living".
I'm not ashamed of what I've put on my profile because I've done nothing to be ashamed of. I don't drink, smoke, or do drugs.
I'm not much into orgiastic partying, either. Your friend brings a camera and it's all over, pal.
As far as my employer or potential employers looking me up, feel free! You'll find a hard-working, happy future employee.
Great follow-up to the Tribune article, it (Tribune) generated a lot of responses on their own web site with a poll that was rather shocking. I think the trend will be more investigations into ones online information, which will hopefully make the corporate community realize the other side of the coin, reputation management of them selves, colleges included.
I agree with your points, but it would be naive to think that control of this sort of thing is completely within the user's hands.
If rivals know their competition well enough and are willing to go to the lengths described above, the next logical step will be to just set the whole thing up. Why bother with planting things on the other person's genuine site when you can just as easiy sign up for an email account in their name and, unbeknownst to them, set up a counterfeit Facebook account loaded with damaging content?
The burden will be on administrators to learn to detect and screen out b.s.
As someone who conducts job interviews from time to time, my policy has always been that I will consider any information about a candidate that I can legally obtain, and that most defintely includes online. While I'm not backing down from that, your piece has defintely sounded a cautionary note for me. Thanks.
My suggestion is invest some time in creating a professional online identity to balance out all the social identities out there. So when some google's you, they'll find the professional identity alongside any interesting pictures. One site you missed Sarah is http://www.nuresume.com which is a free site for students to create an online professional resume. So there's one way students can add to their facebook profile a professional multi-media identity...
Re: Facebook and tagged photos: you can also adjust your privacy settings to determine who is allowed to see photos and videos tagged with you. So, if you are worried, then set it so that only your direct friends will see those on your profile. You can even limit which contacts can see them, by using the groups with the privacy settings.