The last resort on a Saturday night for every bored high schooler would probably be Facebook. It is a nostalgic place that never fails to remind us all of the middle school days and our old low-quality profile pictures. In the last few years, it has become a deserted place with almost no sign of life from anyone but parents. Almost entirely taken over by proud moms, Facebook has become a site to gloat about a kid’s academic and athletic successes. Yet another aspect also commonly seen is the changing of names. Approaching the last year of high school, seniors usually change their last name to their friends last name and vice versa. It is to keep their identity hidden from the lurking college admissions offices. It is no longer a secret that colleges are looking through students’ profiles as if they were a set match on those awkward dating websites. Although the high school faculty does not look through students accounts, it is important to still be aware of everything one puts online. If you don’t have your privacy settings set strictly, you can expect your account to be viewed by nearly anyone and everyone.

We all know the rules about social media. They range from “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all” to “don’t post anything you would not want your parents to see.” Both are sweet and true but if we are honest with the world of high school, they are not always followed. With the infamous “#beatwl” tweets that come every year with each rivalry game, student’s feeds are filled with funny and scandalous pictures that no one would ever want their parents to see. Eyes widen as phone screens are shown to best friends walking along the noisy hallways. Even if your friends do not excitedly show you the tweets first, the pictures are liked to the point where you start to get notifications about the amount of likes it is receiving.

With the ridicule and embarrassment, the faculty occasionally gets involved. Stated in  Arlington Policy Implementation Procedure 45-2.1, “APS is not responsible for student or staff use of electronic technology resources outside of school. However, staff or students may be disciplined for any technology use that negatively affects the APS or that negatively affects the ability or fitness of any staff person to effectively serve the school division”. Therefore, it is obvious when the school becomes involved because the account will be temporarily disabled and the picture miraculously disappears. Yet we all know someone has an easily accessible screenshot.

I strongly agree with the Arlington Public Schools internet safety and acceptable use policies for the fact that it does respect student privacy. I would never want my Advanced Placement U.S. History or math teacher checking out my latest complaint about all my homework and how I am “drowning in the assignments.” The policies are reasonable with social medias as well as protecting towards any student that is cyberbullied. With the advancement of technology and accessibility to accounts, cyberbullying has skyrocketed in the past few years. It’s just as bad, if not worse, as “traditional” bullying and it’s often anonymous. I cannot tell you who runs the account I retweet the most from because I have absolutely no idea who is behind the keyboard.

If one looks at their feed this instant, it would probably be filled with pretty normal things such as the latest memes or possibly hype about the new Star Wars movie coming out. Social media is a place for us teenagers to share our lives, our thoughts and all of our complaints. Generally speaking, it is a great place to interact with others and to “get hip” to everything that is or isn’t “lit.”       

Unfortunately, there will always be those kids we all wish would have just paid attention to the annual awkward lectures about internet safety. Why did you not pay attention in health class when we had a whole unit on the topic? As we squeeze the bridge of our nose and shake our head in exasperation, we wonder if they ever had the lectures in elementary school before creating their email account. Fireboy99, your diss track was not fire–it was just harsh and rude.

If I had one piece of advice, it would be to try to remember a time when your parents would go through all your accounts as if it were their career. If they would come barging into your room, holding up your phone with the devil in their eyes, don’t post it.