Sara’s Weblog – ATEC 3325

I searched the web for a story relating to this, and couldn’t find much; but then I remember I’ve had a semi-personal experience with this very topic.

My junior year Xanga was very popular at my high school…until one of the Vice Principals started browsing student pages and getting them into trouble for pictures they were posting on Xangas. So, if you there were pictures of you, say at a party holding a “red cup,” on any student’s Xanga you got a call to report to the office. This certain vice principal also notified your parents and shared with them what was going on.

The whole thing was blown out of proportion, I found it extremely stupid. I had a close friend call me in a panic to delete her entire Xanga because the vice principal found it and was about to show her mother some rather incriminating pictures.

First of all, I think the school didn’t have any right to punish students for what they posted online. One, because these events didn’t happen on campus; and two, no school clubs or groups were involved. Secondly, the kids were stupid to post drunken pictures of themselves online; don’t post something you wouldn’t want everyone to see.

I actually found interesting article about businesses limiting what their employees could post online about themselves in blogs, profiles, or other sites. This is becoming increasingly common in fields where employees have a personal site displaying a portfolio or professional work.