Why applicants don't really want to use Facebook for college searches

Thought this generation of college applicants was all about social media?

Think again, suggests a New York Times post on a session on students, technology and the college admissions process:

“Colleges say, ‘Like us on Facebook’ — but that’s my personal time, I’d rather not,” one high school senior said. “I’d like to find a time in my day where I don’t think about the college process,” she said to soft applause from a few sympathetic audience members.

The peer sitting next to her nodded. “Seeing a college on Facebook, it’s like, you’re in my face, and I’d appreciate if you weren’t.”

Well, now.

Pardon me.

About the blogger

Alex Friedrich

afriedrich@mpr.org

Alex Friedrich reports on higher education issues for MPR News. Among the stories he has covered: the fall of the Berlin Wall, aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, 2003 Moscow suicide bombing and 2004 presidential elections in the Republic of Georgia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Georgia and a master’s in European political economy from the London School of Economics.

JoannaOC

Using social media does not mean you want everyone to come poking around your page. especially not corporations or institutions. Unfortunately, Facebook’s recent changes have made it so that you will have fewer and fewer choices in maintaining ANY kind of restrictions on access to your data. I have just “deleted” my account (although I know FB doesn’t really delete my data), and I am advising my daughter to do the same, although she and her friends use FB to communicate a lot with each other, and I’m unlikely to get her to do so. She has nothing to be ashamed of in her Facebook page, but she and her peers use it for socializing. for a really good analysis of teen use of social media like MySpace and Facebook, I highly recommend reading danah boyd’s work; she wrote her dissertation on the topic, and now works as a researcher for Microsoft.