Peter Lacerenza
Features Editor
It can be said on any Sunday afternoon while students are still holding off on doing their homework, that browsing through photo albums of the weekend’s parties on Facebook is an unofficial pastime of sorts. While the contents of the photos may range from squeaky clean to questionable, there is usually a common theme.
“When I go to my news feed, I usually see an album name usually involving an inside joke that consists of ‘ruit, loose girls in scanty outfits and gentlemen with profanities written all over their faces after they’ve passed out,” sophomore Thomas Rochlin said.
For the most part, junior Katie Van Veghel agreed, “Usually there’s a lot of Keystone and beer pong.”
Although the prevalence of posting photos on Facebook with people drinking is pretty common, what are the initial thoughts of students when such pictures are posted?
“I think it really depends on circumstances,” Thomas said. “If it’s a Solo cup, that’s one thing, but if you’re downing hard liquor that’s another thing. From a personal standpoint, I wouldn’t want pictures of myself with either, but I think that some people let it get out of proportion.”
“If people want to risk getting in trouble, it’s their choice,” senior Nick Bamatter said. “I don’t think it’s as big of a deal as people make it seem. If you tag yourself, it’s almost like you want to be seen like that.”
Much like a new Louis Vuitton handbag or a pair of Ray-Ban wayfarers, tagged photos of students drinking alcohol sometimes come off as something merely for status.
“I remember when I came in as a freshman seeing that all the upperclassmen were doing it, so it seemed like a cool thing to do,” Thomas said. “There’s not a direct peer pressure to do it, but there sort of is.”
However, junior Jasmine Nelson disagreed. “I really don’t think so,” she said. “I just think its one of those things high schoolers do. I know a lot of people in our school who are anti-alcohol, and a ton more who aren’t. With the exception of a select few, most people do not strike a pose with beer in hand to look “cool”. In a couple of years when we mature and look back and see those pictures, we will not think about them the same way we do now.”
While some people may see Facebook as their own, personal niche of the internet, the contents of pages and photos are all very public. As a result, posting photos can sometimes lead to trouble.
“My initial reaction is that posting photos with students drinking is that it’s stupid,” Principal Tony Pavia said. “It’s a way for a student to gain attention by saying ‘Hey everyone, I’m a naughty teenager.’ And it makes it all the more of an act of stupidity when colleges and jobs research social networking sites.”
But do colleges actually look at Facebook profiles and photos?
“Usually colleges can be too busy during the admissions process, but that’s not to say that they won’t,” College and Career Center Coordinator Sue Carroll said. “They don’t make a rule out of it, but they certainly have access to it. There was a case where a student was rejected because photos of him drinking during an overnight stay surfaced, and the college thought that if the student couldn’t keep the rules intact through the application process, then what will it be like when they’re actually a student? It might be fun when you’re fifteen, but when you’re 35 and running for president, it will all be coming back to haunt it. Facebook has the rights to everything you do on the site, so you have to be really careful.”
Although for many students the college process and applying for jobs might be a little further down the road, short term problems arise when drug or alcohol related photos of athletes arise. “[Such photos] are relevant to school in a very narrow way in that a schools involvement off campus behavior is limited by the law,” Mr. Pavia said. “The one place that it is relevant to the school is in the athletic regulations about substance abuse. So when a picture like this is brought to the school’s attention, even though it is of off campus behavior, an athlete can be suspended from that activity.”
Lacrosse and Indoor Track Coach Alex Whitten has taken an approach in order to make sure that athletes are abiding by the athletic substance abuse policies. “I ask players to friend me to make sure that they’re behaving,” he said. “Here and there we’ve dealt with some issues, but overall it’s just that people need to be more cognizant of the digital world, where privacy issues will be harder to defend, and be careful with content of themselves with incriminating evidence in a public domain.”
