Med Students' Stupidity on Facebook

corranged
Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:29:21 +0000

So, why would they want to SHARE that information now in such a public fashion with those same people?

To be fair, it’s likely not the same people. Even for the students whose profiles aren’t limited to friends, the profiles will be limited by network. Further, we are talking about med students. I assume the profiles will become more private and/or more conservative once these students actually begin practicing medicine. Obviously these students should have more private profiles–I believe most people out there should have their profiles set to friends-only. But I don’t think that having something on a Facebook profile is the same as openly sharing the information with an interviewer or patient, and I generally assume that adults (including my doctors) have sexual orientations, political views, and relationship statuses, and have drank heavily, partied, and made poor decisions in the past. These profiles don’t have the tightest security options in place, but they are not viewable by the general public.