99.5% of the world’s population has a Facebook account. Or at least that’s what it seems like. It’s probably not quite that high. But it’s very likely that you, internet peruser and blog reader, have an account, whether you’re in high school or already in college. Facebook has become one of the primary means of social communication for students throughout the country (and the world), and, like any other means of social communication, has its own set of norms. While you won’t be humiliatingly reprimanded for breaking any of these rules, you may find yourself in an awkward situation or make someone else feel a little weird.

First and foremost, don’t be a Facebook stalker. It’s difficult to define exactly what a Facebook stalker is, but it starts with knowing a lot about someone’s life . . . even though you’ve never met them. If you know someone’s siblings’ names, their pets’ names, their favorite colors, and what they did last weekend, they better be one of your best friends. If not, you may want to take a step back and question whether or not you’re guilty of this. Don’t let this deter you from reading about people that you don’t know (that’s one of the nice things about Facebook)—just don’t go overboard and make it weird.

One of the best things about Facebook is that it allows you to share pictures with your friends. You can post pictures of trips that you’ve taken, your friends and family, sporting events, parties, or whatever you wish. But be careful which pictures you put up—before you post pictures of your friends from the party last night, make sure you’re not putting up anything that could cause embarrassment. It’s just not cool, and it’s also one of those things that can come back around. You wouldn’t want to see an embarrassing picture of yourself up on somebody else’s page, would you?

If you know a lot of people, it’s easy to accumulate a very large number of friends on Facebook. Some people even take pride in the fact that they have a ridiculously long friend list. This is fine, if these people are your friends. If they’re not, they shouldn’t be on your list. You may think it’s cool to befriend every person that’s friends with your friends’ friends, but it can get really irritating to receive a bunch of friend requests from people that you’ve never heard of. Don’t ask someone to be your friend unless you at least are acquaintances.

Facebook etiquette for college students is a fairly simple concept: just be polite. You can be sure, though, that you’ll run into a significant number of people that break at least one of these rules. When you do, unless they’re one of your close friends (in which case you should tell them that they’re being annoying), it’s best to distance yourself a bit from this person to that you don’t become associated with their antics as well.

As always, if you have any questions, comments or funny stories you'd like me to share about college or the blog, email me at stu@stuvu.com