Facebook - Privacy Violation?

[fantASTic]

Originally Posted by ΑΓΔSquirrelGirl

No one's giving up rights. They're being asked not to post pictures of them DRINKING online. Who cares? Ever heard of pick your battles? Save it for the chapters that tell their girls what to wear week to week, tell them they can't join certain groups, tell them they can't say certain things or can't hang out with certain people, or make them lose weight or take the purple steak out of their hair, or make them remove a piercing. This stuff DOES happen. That is censorship.

Fortunately I am not stupid either...I see reality. Reality is that because drinking became such an issue within the Greek system (and though college students drink, Greek or not, where there is smoke there is fire) we DO have to worry about image. Underage drinking is illegal. Just because a lot of people do it doesn't mean the law changed somewhere along the line. And binge drinking IS a horrible habit for a million reasons. Again, because some people do it doesn't mean it's not something to be concerned about. For all of the chapters and houses of Greek organizations that made their pledges do shots, or drink a whole pitcher in a certain amount of time, or bought alcohol for all of the 18 year olds, there are chapters that discourage that. BUT reality is that the media focuses on the negative, NOT the positive. No one is willing to give Greeks a break for alcohol abuse, regardless of the fact that it's not just a Greek problem. To show a good faith effort to combat the abuses of drinking, Greek organizations are forced to make blanket rules. They cannot possibly go through every single facebook profile and decide if Suzy's bar picture with a beer is ok or not. That's life.

If you join a sports team in college, you'll have a curfew. You're sometimes told you can't drink or do drugs-regardless of age (as applies to alcohol, not drugs). Sometimes you have to dress a certain way or use certain products. You might have to do community service if you break these rules. Why? There's a purpose...you have a curfew to make sure you stay on a regular schedule and stay healthy. You don't drink or do drugs so that you can stay in the best physical condition. You might have to present a certain image when you represent the university that you play for. And in the same way there is a purpose for these rules in Greek life.

Being part of ANY group, club, society, or team means doing things you don't want to do sometimes. People who aren't willing to make these SMALL sacrifices don't need to join.


And lastly, people use the internet as "personal expression" too often. There's no need to post EVERY detail of your life online. a) most people just don't care and b) it's dangerous. Not only does that provide a starting point for any unbalanced characters out there, it can hurt future employment prospects.

Okay...stop right there. You are generalizing. First of all, the difference between a sports team and a sorority is that in sports teams, your physical condition directly impacts your usefulness. Not so in sororities. I agree that personal expression online should be somewhat censored, but I DON'T think that a sorority has the right to mandate that. If you put up drunken pictures and can't get a job, that's YOUR problem. It shouldn't become the problem of sisters who do have common sense.

And as for picking your battles...there's a reason why free speech in the US is almost unlimited. You can't start picking and choosing when it applies. It's all or nothing. If a sorority has the right to tell someone what they can post pictures of, then why don't they have to right to tell them to take out that piercing?

"Drinking makes us look bad." "Your eyebrow piercing/purple streak in your hair/tattoo makes us look bad. Get rid of it."

Same story.

Besides which..if it REALLY was all about your future, then the sorority SHOULD be concerned with what you wear and your outward appearance. We all know how you look at an interview matters. So again, they should have the right to take out that purple streak or get rid of the piercing or demand the tattoo is removed...if your logic holds.