by Elizabeth M Young

Created on: August 31, 2011

Facebook and the brave new world of college life can either be a healthy combination, or the combination can be a hazard. Before giving a list of DOs and DONT's, there are a few realities about transitioning from high school, the military, or full time employment into a full blown college experience.

The first reality is that transitioning to college is enough of a major challenge in life. Each and every day, all of the peripheral matters, including social networking, must take a back seat until the important tasks have been taken care of. This is because there will be few, if any people who will step in to make you do the homework or get to class in a sober state.

The second reality is that getting into trouble or causing trouble at social networking sites can create lasting hurt, loss of credibility or damage to your reputation. 

The third reality is that everything that you post is permanently in the world, is cached somewhere, may have been exposed without your knowledge, or may have been downloaded to someone's computer.

The final reality is that, unless you met an individual in person, a Facebook account could be held by anyone and you could be exposing your life to a monster.

DO

Give as little information as possible when registering.

Use a Pseudonym and not your real name when registering.

Learn about every detail of the privacy settings

Check the privacy settings once a week

Choose "friends" carefully, as you would when giving out your address or phone number.

Limit new "friends" to about 20 people at first. Any more new people, plus existing friends and family, can be too much workload.

Consider setting up a separate Facebook account for Parents and relatives.

Be firm when individuals pressure you for friend request approval, game requests or other unwanted interaction.

Learn the basic features of Facebook, like posting to your wall, "liking" a wall post and commenting on a post.

Learn how to block unwanted requests and posts by annoying people.

Learn how to put various Facebook friends into lists based on who they are

Choose an appropriate photo or avatar

Limit wall posts to appropriate, well thought out and valuable content.

Comment and appreciate those wall posts that you approve of.

Pay attention to personalities, wall posts, and comments if you think that a "friend" or group of "friends" are up to no good. Unfriend if necessary. 

Avoid using any "friend finding", "location tracking", or facial recognition features at Facebook,

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>