It's a typical Monday morning. You wake up, grab a cup of coffee, and check for the little red flag that means you have a social life. Yet, this week, the number is a little high off.
Instead of having one notification from a friend writing a message on your wall, you have 20 from a "group" that has included you without your knowledge.
As Student Association Senate elections began on Tuesday, the parties needed to rush to campaign and get their platforms out to the undergraduate students. They turned to what can be considered the biggest social media phenomenon of this generation: Facebook.
In years past, the parties each created a "group" page to help spread their message and reach as many students as possible. With this year's elections are underway, that has not changed.
What has changed, though, are Facebook's design and privacy policies, and some people are not happy with it.
"Generally, for Senate, [the parties] use a group format. In the past, you would get a notification of someone [inviting you to the group]," said Daniel Ovadia, one of the on-campus candidates for the Pirate Party. "It's just the way that the group format has changed now and I think that's what is getting on people's nerves and getting obnoxious."
Facebook keeps evolving and updating and it can be difficult to keep up with the changes to the site. The "group" feature on the site has been overhauled and instead of inviting members to the group and giving them the chance to accept or decline, page administrators can now "add" students without their consent.
"As new technologies grab hold of the populace, the privacy issues will continue to come up – not everyone wants all their information shared," said Karen Swierski, an adjunct professor in the department of communication. "Social media, Facebook, Twitter and other methods, are easy for this technology savvy generation to use."
Because students are being added to these groups, they receive a notification for every action on the page, whether it's a post by an administrator, the addition of more members, or another group member making a post. This influx of notifications, in most cases, is unwanted and bothersome.
"It's kind of annoying. Whenever somebody posts, I get a notification. I didn't really read anything on the Facebook page [for this reason]," said Alex Opiel, a sophomore computer engineering major.
Other students don't seem to mind the flood of notifications and information.
"I've been added [to the groups]. Facebook is one of my favorite tools for advertising," said Steven Jackson, a sophomore history major. "I think it's a good thing; it doesn't bother me."
According to Stephen Shapero, one of the on-campus candidates for the Student Legion Party, by using social media sites like Facebook, his party is able to spread its message and reach out to the friends of its candidates. The party uses Facebook to put out its platform, and encourages students to post questions or concerns to party members. The party manages the group page as a whole; this ensures that views expressed by the party are unified, consistent, and include each member's voice.
With the new format, group administrators can only add their friends to the group. They are not able to "invite" just anyone in the general population.
"I don't want to speculate [what] the parties strategies [are], but when you become someone's friend on Facebook, you consent to receive information from them, whatever it may be," said Travis Nemmer, chair of the Elections and Credentials Committee, the governing body for student elections. "This would be illegal if you could just add any random person or add the whole undergraduate listserv. When you become Facebook friends with someone and you're accepting any kind of information from them, you have every right to remove yourself from the group or un-friend the person."
According to the Student Association Election Rules and Regulations, "any campaigning or publicity in forums with 10 or more non-candidates in attendance is only allowed if such event is approved by the Elections and Credentials Chair at least 24 hours prior to the event." The rules go on to state that such events must involve a fair opportunity for all candidates running to voice their ideas.
"[The committee] basically said that if you're speaking to a group of 11 people, one of those people better leave because you're not allowed to speak to that many people at a time," Ovadia said. "So it really limits you and I think that's one of the reasons why the candidates have used Facebook, especially for Senate."
Currently, the Elections and Credentials Committee does not have any limits on how student parties utilize Facebook and other social media outlets to promote their group, including how students are added to groups.
"[Adding people to a Facebook group] is not illegal," Swierski said. "But if we are not asked if they can do that, then we feel as though our privacy has been violated. I don't think there is an easy way to stop this practice and I don't see an easy way to opt out either."
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