Facebook 'friends' high schools

High school students across the country can now enter into the college world of wall postings, shared photo albums and "poking" on facebook.com. They can even "friend" college students with whom they've never once exchanged conversation.

"I recently declined a 'friend' request from a student at my old high school," said Pete Ploszek '09, a member of the facebook group "Princetonians for the Segregation of College and High School facebook."

"He was someone I hardly knew at all. It was almost like he was abusing the power of facebook, just trying to get as many universities represented on his profile as he possibly could," Ploszek said. "I feel like he was trying to make himself look cooler by showing he is friends with a college student."

James Colby '09, the "Princetonians" group's founder, said that high school students' newfound zeal for "friending" has the potential to overwhelm the currently college-oriented site.

"The principle of the integration is just totally wrong," Colby said. "I've already been 'friended' by seven high school students. I've rejected six of them and left one, who I somewhat know, as a pending friend. If I accepted their friend requests, I would have half my wall filled with high school postings just because they're in a facebook frenzy right now."

The new high school option also poses a problem for college students who wish to conceal their college lifestyles from their younger high school peers.

"I don't want to be limited in what I feel comfortable posting on facebook because my little brother's friends and my little cousins are able to flip through my pictures," Pam Testani '07 said. "Let high schoolers gain the privilege of using a network that does require some responsibility to use — in terms of the kind of information that can be displayed — once they're introduced into this new and more mature community."

Kean Tonetti '06, however, recognizes the networking advantages that facebook can provide high school students.

"I can see how [high school facebook] could probably make people feel a lot more comfortable about going to college," Tonetti said. "It's a great way to scope out new friends and potential hookups."

But with the recent publicity over sexual predators on the social networking site MySpace.com, some students are also worried that the integration will only increase the chances of someone being stalked.

"High school students are just not old or sophisticated enough to handle what risks there are, most specifically the risk of attracting a stalker," Joe Zipkin '07 said. "Most people are aware of danger, but I'm worried about those freshmen high school girls who aren't savvy enough to not accept a facebook request from a college senior."

Tonetti expressed another social risk posed by facebook. "[facebook] will probably create the same problems that [it] already has of pigeonholing people before [students] even step on campus," she said.

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"Not even to mention the fact that if you spend as much time on the facebook in high school as a typical college student does, you'll never get in to college to begin with," Tonetti said.