As first reported in The Harvard Crimson and later covered in national news, at least ten incoming Harvard freshmen had their offers of admission revoked this week after they posted offensive memes and messages in a private Facebook group chat. Not surprisingly, it’s generated a lot of discussion amongst counselors, ranging from expressions of relief that those kids won’t end up in the dorms this fall to reminders that colleges do care what kids post on social media. For student readers of this blog, I hope you’ll take this story as a potent illustration of the power, and the staying power, of the internet.
For better or worse, you can’t be punished for having immature, uninformed, or even downright ugly thoughts. But once you put those thoughts on the internet, even in a private group, you’re signing your name to them. And if those words are shared, it will not be treated differently than if you’d stood up in front of your school and said the words, or worn a sweatshirt emblazoned with those words. And if it goes viral, as it did in this case, you might as well have just said those words on the news. Once it’s put in writing and shared publicly, it all becomes part of your online permanent record. At that point, whatever your original intent was in sharing them won’t matter.
This might sound like I’m overly dramatizing the risks of posting online, but I think this recent incident at Harvard shows otherwise. It doesn’t matter if what those students shared were deeply held beliefs or fleeting, flippant thoughts (either of which they’d likely have the opportunity to explore and reconsider once they got to college). They got accepted to Harvard, they shared offensive postings online, and now they’re out.
The internet gives a voice and a platform to anyone who wants it. Use that opportunity to share things you’re willing to stand by as part of your online permanent record, because that’s exactly what they just might become.