“Students for Concealed Carry on Campus.” “We Oppose the Planned Class of 2009 Video Game Lounge Gift.” “I go to RPI, not ‘Rensselaer.’” “Uprise at Five!” “Students Against Financial Mismanagement at RPI.”
If these titles look familiar, they should, as group and event invites like this have most likely been flooding your Facebook inbox as they have mine. We are in a time when starting a protest is as easy as typing a quick purpose statement and inviting all of your friends to join. It’s hard to believe that just a short time ago, for people to support a cause they—gasp—actually had to do something.
I want to make it clear that I am not attacking the people that form these groups on Facebook. Quite the opposite, actually; if you have strong feelings about something and want others to know, you have every right to express these opinions—as long as you fully understand the situation before you rant to the whole world that you are mad about something you know very little about.
Misinformed complaining, however, is the topic of another article, so I’ll stay away from it in this one. The problem lies in people’s overzealous tendency to join these groups and causes without actually knowing what they are. Not only do people accept these invitations, they proceed to invite everyone in their friends list to latch on to a cause where the attachment ends with the “X” in the top right corner of their computer screen. It’s not that people are joining these digital causes that frustrates me; it’s that people do so without even knowing what they are and checking if the sources quoted by a group are even reliable. For example, perhaps a Facebook group whose cause is supported almost entirely by newspaper articles written by a single reporter (whose track record is less than objective) should get more than 15 seconds of thought before you click “Accept.” In essence, I beg everyone to give thought before joining these groups and spamming everyone to do the same.
In addition to the consideration for your friends’ feelings by not constantly spamming them with Facebook invitations, you should also think about the public nature of the Internet. By joining these groups, you are going on public record saying that you agree with something that you possibly do not entirely understand. This is not only potentially bad for you, it is bad for all parties involved. Several entities, from friends and family to job and college recruiters, can monitor your Internet activities. Being associated with negativity and pessimism does not always yield positive results, especially with job recruiters. In addition, if the goal of your group is to make RPI a better place, you are only hurting it by being so publicly negative.
In closing, think before you act. At a technologically savvy school such as this, I would hope to think that we are not so naive as to think that the things we do on the Internet are private and contained to ourselves. Next time you get an invitation to join a group on Facebook, do yourself and everyone you would send that invite to a favor and think about what the group is for more than 15 seconds.
