Facebook 101
By Liz Robinson
Posted January 25, 2011
Noted Facebook expert Chris Vollum spent the day at HTS Monday, speaking to students, faculty and parents about the popular social networking site and its effect on how and what we choose to communicate online. Mr. Vollum spent time talking to students in the Middle and Senior Schools about their Facebook profiles and privacy settings, emphasizing the risks of sharing too much personal information and becoming “friends” with people you don’t really know or trust. After offering examples of people who had been asked to leave school or lost their jobs due to their Facebook profiles, Mr. Vollum warned the students that “what’s on your Facebook page could have as much of an impact as what’s on your transcripts, resumes and references.”
Mr. Vollum gave a similar presentation to parents and emphasized that although you can’t control everything that is posted and shared on Facebook, you can customize your privacy settings to limit the amount of information that appears online. Mr. Vollum offered many recommendations to Facebook users, including restricting the public from seeing your friend list, deleting “friends” you don’t really know and disabling popular app’s which share your personal information with the public. Mr. Vollum offered the advice of choosing your “friends” wisely and to be conscious of what you are posting and commenting on to the students in the audience.
Parents had the opportunity to meet Mr. Vollum and ask questions at a post presentation reception.
HTS would like to thank Mr. Vollum for his four interesting, informative presentations and Tracy Howard, Grace Osmond, Sabrina Roy and the HTS Parents' Guild for working hard to make the event a tremendous success!
