Beware of excessive, careless networking

By Nicole Nejati

Editor’s note: The following article has been removed from The Daily Illini’s Web site because some or all of the information in it is false or fabricated, including the information and quotes concerning or from Raymond Mok. The Daily Illini regrets the error.

When Raymond Mok, junior in Business, joined the popular social networking Web site Facebook, he didn’t know how much time he would spend on it looking for people with similar interests in music and movies, or how it would affect his grades during his first semester.

Mok joined Facebook immediately after he received his school e-mail address.

“I thought it would be a good way to contact my roommate, and plus it would be really awkward on the phone,” Mok said. “I also wanted to meet more people who lived on my floor and in the same dorm as I did.”

Mok spent hours a day on Facebook and didn’t have much time to finish his homework. As a result, his grades suffered during his first semester.

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Facebook was originally intended as a way for college students to keep in touch and stay “in the know” with friends from other schools, but it has also turned into a tool that teaching assistants use to check up on their students.

Amber Greviskes, a Journalism 200 teaching assistant, is very honest with her students at the beginning of the semester and tells her students she checks Facebook in hopes that her students will be more careful about it.

“In Journalism 200, students are supposed to get used to interviewing people whom they’ve never met, they are supposed to get outside their comfort zones,” Greviskes said. “The whole reason these rules exist is because when students get into upper-level classes they will be in a lot of trouble if they are caught interviewing friends.”

Not only does Facebook allow students to find other students with similar interests, but it also allows people to see where they live, their cellphone numbers and Instant Messenger screen names, depending on privacy settings.

Steve Kang, senior in Business, was stalked by a girl in his residence hall his freshman year who had found information about him through his Facebook profile. His profile had his residence hall and room number, cellphone number and AOL Instant Messenger screen name on it. Kang’s stalker instant messaged him frequently, wrote him messages through Facebook and called him on a regular basis.

Eventually Kang reported his stalker to campus police and the instant messages, Facebook messages and phone calls abated. He is now very careful with the information he displays on his profile and has set his profile to private. Facebook allows you to change your profile settings to private and allow only your friends and only your network to view full profiles.

“Students should be careful of what they put on their Facebook profiles,” Kang said. “You’ll be surprised by how many people you don’t know look at your profile and find personal and private information on you.”

With Facebook become a growing trend not only on college campuses, many employers utilize Facebook to read about job applicants. Many students have taken precautions to ensure that their Facebook profile or the pictures they have posted to not cost them their futures. So, be careful of what you place on your page, because you never know who may be looking at it.