Fake profiles are nothing new to Facebook, especially in the college world. After hearing about the infamous “Lauren Cohn” of yesteryear, it was little wonder to me (and many of my classmates) that Phaiye Blaount turned out to be a fake too. After getting numerous Northwestern students, primarily incoming freshmen, to believe that she was a homeschooled girl from Big Ten, Maine, excited about attending NU, it ended up not being her slightly phony persona but rather the pictures that she posted that did her in.
Nonetheless, by Facebook’s standards, we were “friends.” Though we never wrote on each other’s walls, sent messages back and forth or traded bumper stickers, she could still view my pictures, see where I had gone to school, read about my hobbies, and discover the many other aspects of my personal life that, just like her, I had reserved strictly for the eyes of my “friends”.
Not that this newfound vulnerability really bothered me. In all actuality, I don’t think I was truly aware of how potentially detrimental it was. After all, I had accepted such requests from many of my future classmates, so there was really no new risk associated with friending Phaiye. It wasn’t until Caitlyn Van Orden stepped into the picture, and it was determined that the pictures in Blaount’s account belonged to her, that I became aware of how harmful this behavior could become.
As an incoming freshman at Kennesaw State University, Caitlyn’s Facebook victimization was not the first time that she had encountered opposition. With many at odds with her view on the First Ammendment rights granted to public schools in her state, Caitlyn suspects that “Phaiye,” or the person behind her, is a fellow southerner aimed at revenge. This past fall, with the media pointing their cameras in her direction, Caitlyn had held rallies, circulated petitions and started a Facebook group in an effort to rectify the situation dividing her community.
But as her internet popularity increased, she let her guard down and accepted stranger’s friend requests. So when she first saw that her pictures were being displayed in a total stranger’s Facebook account she was caught off guard. “When I saw my own picture, my heart started pounding… I felt completely out of control of what happened to my image, which I was,” she said.
After talking with her about the situation, it seemed to me that while Caitlyn had come to terms with Facebook, she had acquired a new set of rules in regards to using it as a daily communicative tool, urging her peers to follow her example.
“I recommend that people go through their privacy settings and make sure that everything is set to ‘friends only,’” she said. “Also, go through your friends list and delete anyone who seems sketchy, and give a little more thought before accepting people as friends.”
But are all these precautions worth losing the opportunity to develop connections with future classmates before arriving on campus? We all have a lot on our minds this summer, and for me, having friends to hang out with — or at the very least, someone to eat dinner with — is becoming a growing concern, especially as Welcome Week draws nearer.
However, upon hearing Caitlyn Van Orden’s story, I’ve come to realize the risk of putting myself out there. Fortunately, there’s a difference between randomly friending someone you’ve never spoken to, and friending something that you’ve actually had a conversation with. Though it would serve as comfort to know that I won’t be walking to classes by myself or dining alone, the connections that I’m searching for — that we’re all searching for — can’t be finalized until September anyways.
And besides, anticipation never killed anyone.
Hallie Busta
Next week: My thoughts on One Book, One Northwestern.