Privacy and Cyberspace: The Facebook Saga

Facebook: love it or leave it. Let me fill you in. We, like many other public schools in New York State, are staring down the barrel at record cuts in state and federal funding, thereby leaving the powers that be with the apparently inevitable decision to cut staff. News of the bloodletting was released in sketchy terms at the Board of Education meeting last Monday. Word has started to seep out to the community, and the main ooze point is the student body themselves.

There's nothing new about students protesting the decisions made by school administrations, in fact the students in my school are just continuing a fine, patriotic tradition of civil outcry and disobedience by voicing their displeasure in a very public way. It's just that the public venue has changed from sit-ins to plug-ins. Enter Facebook, the social media networking site extraordinaire. Instead of gathering in Nichols park to decry the state of affairs at the school, or staging a non-violent protest in the principal's office, they did what their generation does best (and, apparently, what the Obama administration in Washington has figured out, as well): they went online.

Students from one particularly popular English teacher's classes have started a blog on Facebook to rally support for their beleaguered instructor, and the posts have been anything but dispassionate. Most of the posts have been in plain support of my colleague, extolling her virtues and appealing to the more logical natures of the Board of Education. In fact, some students have even taken to deciding which teachers in the building they would rather have fired. Disgruntled activists, social critics, or immature kids just venting about their mean high school teachers? You be the judge: click here to view the blog.

I have a few thoughts on this. The teacher in question is a colleague of mine and a member of my department, which makes this a particularly emotional topic for me. I suppose I admire the students for their energy and outrage. Over the last few weeks I've met with every administrator in the building- to no avail- and I half feel like posting a message of support on their board. But I won't. Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, and all of the other social networking sites use their global openness as their draw: all are welcome, and, unless specifically blocked (like Facebook personal pages), all can see. I have to believe that the students who supported their teacher with genuine words of support were happy to have their words out there for the world to see. The righteous indignation of youth can overlook nuances and glaring social realities when those things threaten their way of life. And good for them for their indignation and fire: we all should have more of that. Maybe we all once did.

But the ones that took pot shots at teachers and staff members- sometimes downright nasty shots at that- apparently either were comfortable hiding in the illusory cozy nest that sites like Facebook create, or felt empowered by that same righteous indignation that fueled the others to level a blow at the perceived dead weight within the system. But their attacks, being hidden behind the wall of a social media site, were just that: cowardly attacks on people's lives and reputations. Not unlike Juicy Campus, these attacks were intended to hurt people, all wrapped up behind the guise of helping another. Which is typical for kids, I know, but shouldn't be accepted. And I suppose I need to confront my own presence on the list and what it made me feel. So many of this generation have bought into the digital lullaby of anonymity. But the thing they don't realize is that the adults, the over forty's out there, can see them, do see them, and will someday make judgments about their inherent worth by rendering judgments about their employability, for starts.

Until this generation realizes that the cyber world is not a closed cocoon for their venting, until they begin to feel the true ramifications of their cyber-flaming, then they will never realize why adults will lose respect for them, will judge them, and will hold them accountable for what they say online.

But I suppose at that age they won't care. At eighteen, did I?