Facebook and other online communities offer you an opportunity to interact with an extraordinarily expansive universe of new people. You can sculpt your on-line identity and create new relationships and communities. For the entrepreneurially minded, it might be an introduction into business as you think of how to market yourself. Individuals with particular social identities or hobbies can use it to find friends with common interests.

Some important things to think about: 

I. Invincibility

A long time ago, well before the advent of Facebook, there was a student at an it-shall-go-unnamed university who used a chat room to post some facts about the size of his, shall we say, anatomy. What a surprise when he went for his first job interview, all nicely tailored in a new suit and armed with a good G.P.A. He was rejected. Fortunate for him, there was a friendly alumnus on the search committee who told him the reason. The HR person on the hiring committee had looked him up on the Internet and found the boasting posting! Frantically, the student called the university officials asking them to remove it. Alas, they could not help him because a commercial ISP was the domain of the posted information. In time, the student learned about the labyrinthine procedure in which he had to engage in order to have the posting removed. It never occurred to him that a relatively harmless boast could cause him so much trouble.

This example is just one of many. Other examples from around the country include students whose posted pictures of themselves partying bolstering the administration's case when the underage students were charged with alcohol abuse; a student who applied to be a resident advisor, but was rejected because staff reviewing applications found material the student had posted on Facebook sites inappropriate; or the students reprimanded for extreme and possibly libelous statements that they made about a professor on their Facebook postings.

II. Caching

Caching, in effect, means that if you post something on Facebook, let's say for a day or two, just to be funny or to make a point, even if you take it down or change it, it remains accessible to the rest of the world on the Internet anyway.

Take a moment to think about how you want to "brand" yourself on the Internet. Almost everyone is more complex of a person than a single label can explain, but for most people it takes time and effort, if not real friendship, to get to know people's complexities. Don't give people an excuse to think of you in a single dimensional way. Instead of trying just to fit into a single group, think about yourself as an interesting person with depth of personality and character. What you put out on Facebook about yourself should be an invitation to the rest of the world to get to know you better.

Then consider what it takes to get something removed from Google. You must go through their policy process for removing information from their caching technology. Not only is that a lot of bureaucracy, but also you should know that while Google is the dominant search engine on the Internet today, it might not be tomorrow. Moreover, other search engines operate -- like Wayback Machine -- currently on the Internet and so it is not just Google whom you might have to contact in order to remove a page.

III. Responsibility

I am sure you have all heard that with freedom comes responsibility. Facebook is an excellent example of that adage. Most entering freshmen are young adults and we treat you that way. It is time for you to be away from your families and make your own decisions about who you want to be. This is not because the University does not care, its officials care deeply about you and your development. It is just that we all believe you are of an age and maturity that it is time you learned about freedom and responsibility for yourself. It also means, however, that it is up to you to set your own limits and create your own identity and to be responsible for the consequences, given that you live in the real world of rules, judicial discipline, employers with their own interests as well as other people who, like it or not, will make judgments about what they see.

No one is going to limit those people who are authorized to use the Internet or view Facebook postings from seeing what you post on-line. The Internet is an open, unlimited international community. That authorization includes faculty and staff — as well as alumni. Such people might be members of your family, your parent's neighbors, the local bank manager where you want to get a loan for a new car, your insurance agent, an employer with whom you might want a summer internship, or a law firm where you want to work your second summer of law school — anyone, world wide! On Facebook, you have absolutely no expectation of privacy.

You also might want to take a moment and reflect on the physical safety of this tool when posting information about yourself. No expectation of privacy combined with the full range of humanity represented in these forums means that you may be exposing yourself to someone who may not have the same values, assumptions about appropriate behavior or may even have a mental defect or disease which could put you at risk as a victim of criminal behavior. Very likely you would not place a placard in the front of your house or dorm describing intimate details of your personal life, private sexual matters, detailed comings and goings or anything else that someone less careful and competent than you might construe as an invitation for communication or even harassment and stalking that could prove dangerous. Use physical space as your guide. What you wouldn't put on a poster on your dorm room door you might want to think two or three times about posting on-line.

IV. The Law

Most of the time when we talk about Facebook it is a very individual matter. There is yet another angle to consider: the privacy of others.

Watch what you say! If you post an alleged fact about someone that proves incorrect, you may be liable
for damages under either defamation or libel. Moreover, if you post photographs or information about someone that can be construed to be an "invasion of their privacy" (say while they were sleeping in their own bed), or "false light" (say suggesting that they are of one sexual persuasion when they are of another), or "misappropriation of likeness" (a claim usually reserved for celebrities, but then again we
have them here at Washington University too!) then you may be liable for a tort under the broad
rubric of "privacy."