2006: A MySpace Odyssey
By Bryan Ames, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Let’s play a game. Have you ever heard of the Millennial student? Yes? Good. Okay, how about the characteristics that define that student? Oh, you’ve already been to three presentations on that? Well, I guess you know what’s going on with your students then. So how do they communicate with each other? Anyone? Bueller? LOL! Maybe it’s cuz u don’t spend ‘nuff time surfing the web. The world of online communication is the most important and oft overlooked vessel for you to effectively communicate with your residents. We are constantly inundated by roommate conflicts based on AOL’s Instant Messenger conversations and stories of compromising pictures of our RAs party hopping. We hear of keggers being organized and rumors being spread…in fact, when was the last time you heard anything good about Instant Messenger or websites like http://www.myspace.com and http://www.facebook.com? The truth is that there isn’t a lot of good press out there about these sites when they offer an enormous amount to us as residential life professionals. So why is it important for us to understand the online world? You may be saying, “Bryan, you’re talking about Pandora’s Box here. What I don’t know can’t hurt me.” Well you are right in one aspect. You must make a choice about how you want to involve yourself with the online world, but that choice has a great effect on your connection to your residents. You see, our residents “speak” Millennial. And by “speak” I mean type. By type I mean post, and by post I mean blog. If you followed all of that, well done, you are on your way to speaking Millennial. Much research has been done on the characteristics of the Millennial student, but not much attention has addressed how that student communicates. More and more our students are relying on online interactions and with academia utilizing the blackboard system, why shouldn’t residential life have a system that they operate within? So to choose to not have a solid understanding of popular websites and how to use them to your advantage is much like moving to a foreign country with no intention of learning the native language. You may avoid hearing insults and seeing unpleasant things, but you will also lose some ability to immerse yourself in the culture. So, deep philosophical lectures aside, let’s get down NEACUHO Navigator
to the hard facts and talk about how to utilize these online resources. First let us deal with the largest and fastest growing website on our campuses: Facebook. Based on a personal profile created by users who possess an “.edu” email account from their school, users can send messages, post photos and comments, and advertise parties/events to their school or friends. Personal information such as home address, cell and room phone numbers, Instant Messenger screen names, class schedules, and email addresses often appear. Students all too frequently share more personal information than they should on their profile pages which can lead to issues around stalking. Furthermore, students are wholly unaware that the information that they put onto their profiles—phone numbers or photos—are not protected in any way from being sold to third parties. In order to convince you that there is amazing potential in utilizing Facebook as a tool for residential life, let me provide some statistics. According to Chris Hughes, Facebook spokesperson, the site receives more than 200 page views in any given 24 hour period, it ranks seventh in overall internet traffic, and more than 60 percent of its users sign-in more than once a day (http:// www.facebook.com). If you are looking for better exposure than a flyer campaign or mass voicemail for your event, then look no further than Facebook. As our students increasingly ignore flyers and become more reliant on their cell phones rather than our voicemail system, creating an online profile to advertise your events seems to be crucial to the next phase of promoting programs. In order to create an online profile for yourself or your building, you will need to register with Facebook using your school email account. Once you have registered, you should spend some time crafting a message that will appear on your profile explaining the appropriate use of this website. I’ve included the message from my building’s profile as an example: Hey Everyone! Glad that you're checkin out Hoosac on Facebook! This will be a way for you to see what's going on in your building! Only RESIDENTS of Hoosac will be added as friends here and just a reminder that you
Winter Edition 2006
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