Facebook Hours

If you do limit it more, be ready to quell the rebellion. People will not be happy about this, let them decide how much is right, it's not your place to judge how we spend our free time.

I think having more homework is not going to help the situation at all. We need to learn how to seperate being able to having time with our families or just to ourselves, and being in school. Maybe having time with ourselves is apart of being on facebook. (I mean you guys already have our attention and time 8 hours a day) Being apart of growing up and making our own decisions is choosing how we want to spend or time.

I would agree with the banning of facebook. I think parents would be suprised to see how much students are actually on facebook. Kids would then go to their home computers and parents would see how much kids are truly on facebook. I think this is a great idea

Though I will agree that students (myself included) have a tendency to spend a sickening amount of time on facebook, I do not believe it is the school's place to block it on the school computers. We have to learn to manage our own time, not have in managed for us. I agree with Tim, it's not really the school's place to block facebook outside of school hours.

Okay so for starters it is the high school's place to restrict what we do on our school laptops, after all they did supply us with them so in a way they are responsible for what we are then able to get into, at least a little. Remember the whole purpose of the laptops is for our educational well being and not so that we can use it for such as facebook and games. Then again its not like facebook is bad, but if it does in fact inhibit our learning and thus the laptop does not achieving its purpose. So the fact that facebook is blocked during school, our time to learn, is only because some of us misused it in the first place. So even though i myself would like facebook to unblocked all the time, i know it's not going to happen. So i am happy with the freedom we have now and think that anything different would become to much of a conflict for anyone to be happy.

I think that students like myself use facebook to avoid actually doing homework. I agree it is addicting and I too have a facebook addiction however, students will find some other distraction then facebook. Their are tons of games and other things on the internet to distract us. Facebook is just one of the many things online that can distract students, I don't think blocking it would solve the problem.

Oh yes more homework! Clearly that is a great solution, since every one on facebook is "avoiding" homework, phff. It does not make a whole lot of sense to me why HC wants to hold our hand with everything. Let's think here for a moment of what the the cause of people being on facebook to long is... We don't need to think that long, because it's these computers that were thrown at us. So many people hate these dumb things, they are a distraction at so many levels, so many people hate having computers, giving us computers was a horrible idea. There are so many classes where I cannot even take out my laptop, since the teacher hates using them so much. That shows that these computers weren't such a beautiful idea in the end. But back to this "idea" that there is some way to get us of facebook so we turn out to be the picture perfect image of HC, is ridiculous. You know what? I hope you do block facebook so I have another reason not to touch this computer, even in writing this is distracting me from homework, wow what a joke!

I think how we have it right now is good. Of course, we wouldn't want/need Facebook unblocked during school. It would be WAY to much of a distraction. At home? Not such a good idea. We need to learn to manage our time. If a student doesn't have good grades because of Facebook, it's their own fault. The Administration can't be watching out for us all the time. Maybe a time limit on Facebook would work better, if that is at all possible. Maybe a limit of like half an hour to and hour on Facebook outside of school, then it shuts down. It would allow kids to socialize on Facebook, while forcing them to get off Facebook and do something else. Yes, there are other online games out there, but I think there is only so much Tetris you can play.

I think how we have it right now is good. Of course, we wouldn't want/need Facebook unblocked during school. It would be WAY to much of a distraction. At home? Not such a good idea. We need to learn to manage our time. If a student doesn't have good grades because of Facebook, it's their own fault. The Administration can't be watching out for us all the time. Maybe a time limit on Facebook would work better, if that is at all possible. Maybe a limit of like half an hour to and hour on Facebook outside of school, then it shuts down. It would allow kids to socialize on Facebook, while forcing them to get off Facebook and do something else. Yes, there are other online games out there, but I think there is only so much Tetris you can play.

Here is a personal experience. I have given up facebook for Lent. I had a friend change my password so I really haven't bee on for a very long time. Not only is my facebook time limited, as you suggest, but it is non-existent. This might be shocking, but I have procrastinated and shirked my homework during these facebook-less days just as much as I did when I had facebook. Moral of the story: The shirkers will always shirk and the studious will always study. I don't think that facebook will drastically change that. Do what you might, but ultimately, you can't do a whole lot. In elementary school, we passed notes. In middle school, we played games on our graphing calculators under the desk. Now, we surf facebook. We haven't changed that much, just our procrastination methods.

I think that blocking facebook outside of school hours is not a good idea. As everyone is saying it is not HC's place to tell us how we should manage our time, especially the seniors, we have to learn to be able manage our time since next year we will be able to access facebook on our college laptops. Our parents are paying to rent these laptops and it is our decision on how we want are grades. If we don't do well in our grades well then thats our problem. Facebook is not even a bad website. It is really a helpful resource for me at times for youth group dates and what not. Even if facebook were to be blocked we would just go on a different computer. Personally, I think that seniors should not be able to have the same rules that the freshmen would have. I can see why it is blocked in school and that is a good idea, but honestly we should be able to decide on what we do with our time when we are outside of school. We are in school about 7 hours a day and when we leave we should not have to be under school rules. I don't know I just think this is not right to limit our time on facebook especially when we are outside of school.

seriously..........for one just because we have facebook open on our computer doesn't mean that we're using it, i leave my facebook up my laptop all the time i only actually use it about a half an hour a day anyways. and to say that the reason people dont get assignments done is because of facebook.......really.........if people cant go on facebook they will find something else to distract them, and even if you block it, people still have home computers that they will "waste" time on. kids will always not really want to do their homework and will find other ways to entertain.
and did you guys ever realize that facebook is really the only thing that we are allowed to do on our laptops that is mildly entertaining..........but whatever odds are it will get blocked and you will see no difference.

I think its a very bad idea. Blocking Facebook from our free time is wrong. We should be the person to decide how much we are on Facebook. If we fail a test because we were on Facebook instead of studying, that is our fault. If you really want to shape us, let us make our own mistakes, let us find out what the consequences are ourselves, and maybe even build some character. We aren't going to learn anything by someone blocking Facebook, because we can just go on our home computers and do it there instead. Its a bad idea and it will not help any of us, even if it portrays that way.

I disagree with the blocking of facebook. I don't think it's right for you to decide how we spend our free time. It's our call to decide what we want to do at home/ in our free time. I think it's not right for someone else to decide what we want to do. Facebook is not harmful and it's not illegal and it will not kill anyone, so it shouldn't be blocked. I just think that blocking facebook is going to cause trouble and people will be really mad. I just think it's a bad bad idea! What we do in our free time is not the schools business. You can't stop the using of facebook. You have no right to take away our rights!!!

To be honest, the decision of how we use our time does not lay in the hands of the school or the school board. Deciding how we use our free time is something you have to decide as an individual. As we grow up and go into college, no one there is going to ban Facebook from our computers, we have to learn how to use our spare time. I say the people that spend their time on facebook and doing no homework deserve to fail. Let them fail and go to a poor college, HC doesn't have to hold our hand and tell us what to do the whole time. We already go to school eight hours a day and get homework every day, not to mention our grading scale is one of the hardest in the area, give us a break for once.

As a student, facebook is big for us all. We are in a new age, were communicating online is huge and talking face to face is something in the past. We set times, dates, plans, have convo with many people at one time all right at our fingertips. Why would you wanna take more of this away from our social life? By blocking facebook more, how our we going to learn how to control ourselves? We need to do this ourselves and go on facebook as much as we feel the need to do. Why should we all suffer if only a few people get to distracted by this?

I think that if kids are going to go on facebook and it's blocked on our computers they'll just go on their home computer anyway, so it will be kind of pointless to block it. Also, a lot of the time kids are on facebook to get help on their homework, they can see which kids that are in their class are on and can ask them for help.

This whole argument is a waste of our time and your time. If you block face book we will just go to another chatting place like xanga, myspace, and many others that aren't as well known or simply go on another computer. And there are many other things we can do like instant message, games (there are many other games besides tetris like bubble shooter, blackjack, and any other game you want), and whatever else we feel like doing we will find something. To block it during school is understandable but after school it's our time and we should be able to do what we want, when we want. You can't protect us from everything, we have to figure things out for ourselves.. isn't that part of growing up, and making our own choices. I mean what's next we are all going to have an assigned person following us around to make sure we don't drink, smoke, or do other things. Block what you want during your time (school) but other wise just back off and stay out of our life b/c we do have a life outside of school and they're not suppose to mix, it's bad enough some genius thought of homework and you wonder why it don't get done.. it's b/c home and school were NOT meant to mix! It's our time. Our parents didn't pay to have you block us from everything.

Ever notice how so many people, including HC kids, have complained about the new facebook design and claim they will never go back to facebook, but still regularly visit facebook and are against the banning. Just pointing that out

Micky Prins is dead on. Bravo

To be honest, Facebook has lots of great aspects to it and it allows for communication between friends, close and near. HOWEVER, it has gotten a bit extreme at this point. Comments have mentioned how they need facebook unblocked to demonstrate their ability to control themselves. I think the majority of this year has proved that this is not possible for a lot of people.

these computers are not aimed to have fun, necessarily, but rather for expanding our learning. If facebook were blocked, it would be totally legitimate. Although personally, I like facebook as well and wish to have it accessible

This issues is also people bypassing blocks and accessing facebook during school. It's not just a few people, but a lot of people. THAT is a problem that should be addressed. it shows a lack of control and therefore strengthens the idea we need to block facebook.

More homework wont solve the problem. I believe Facebook should be exclusively blocked on school routers. At home, I think its hard to prevent access. I have other ideas for prevention, but I would rather talk in person.

P.S. And people who don't show respect to this question (I think it's obvious the one or two who are like this) who are sarcastic, mean, and rude do not really help the cause. They kind of make me want to see facebook blocked. Is it that bad that you need to be hostile about it?

A wise man once said "i just wanna play on my pan-pipes, i just wanna drink me some wine. As soon as your born you start dying so you might as well have a good time."
Just because we use facebook doesn't mean we don't do school work.

I have to be honest with you for a second. The way you worded this was quite rude. "save you from yourselves" "should we try to teach you going outside is healthier than facebook" ect. We are not children and the way you addressed us was very condescending. I hope you do understand this. I am not trying to be rude but it is important the way you address us is pointed out.

Facebook is a way to connect with community. Holland Christian teaches the importance of community everyday. By taking away facebook you would take away a vital way of communicating with community from the students, therefore contradicting what you all tell us here each day. It is not fair to group all students as irresponsible with facebook. People are involved in so much throughout the week. Music, sports, theatre, work ect. If those reasons keep students from doing homework should you ban those too? No, because they build community, skill, character, and faith. Facebook can be used for good and it is. I have some of the most amazing conversations with people. I get to talk with people who live far distances from me because of facebook. In the end banning facebook would be very invasive and controlling of the school. Students are allowed to have free-time apart from school. We do spend most of our daily hours here. By respecting students choice in free-time, I believe many are mature enough to respect you all as well by doing their homework. Thanks for your willingness to listen.

I don't see why they would have to do that AFTER school because its not like its during school or anything. so if its during school they should but after school NO. they should block the 6th graders because it is 13 and older and most of them arent

I think that Face Book should not be blocked ever as well as You tube and other game sites and I think it will not be good if you don't unblock it during school and it will be fun to go on it during school if you unblock it.

I think they should keep it as it is becasue people are just going to go on there home computers.

If we want to do facebook instead of home work, that's our problem. You shouldn't block it. We can deal with our own problems.

yes because people are always going on face book all the time so if you let us go on then it will not be a big deal and we will get used to it.

I LOVE FACEBOOK!!!!!! I AM ADDICTED TO IT LIKE CRACK!!!!! YA MAN!!!! GOOD STUFF!!!! HAHA JK!!!! I BELIEVE IN UNICORNS!!!! I OWN ONE AND IT IS IN MY ROOM RIGHT NOW!!!!! I AM FEEDING IT KITTY LITTER!!!!!! YUM YUM!!! WE ARE BEST FRIENDS!!!!!

BAN FACEBOOK!!!!!!!

Jeremy and Chris are right. While the teachers and school board have to teach us (the students) as much as they can in the best way they know how, we as students have the responsibility to learn the material. In the end, no matter how "good" or "bad" a school is at imparting knowledge, it's the students' jobs to learn. If we choose to spend our free time on Facebook and not do our schoolwork, we'll have to accept the consequences. However, that being said, if we are on Facebook, it does not mean that we aren't doing homework.

Jeremy and Chris are right. While the teachers and school board have to teach us (the students) as much as they can in the best way they know how, we as students have the responsibility to learn the material. In the end, no matter how "good" or "bad" a school is at imparting knowledge, it's the students' jobs to learn. If we choose to spend our free time on Facebook and not do our schoolwork, we'll have to accept the consequences. However, that being said, if we are on Facebook, it does not mean that we aren't doing homework.

Answer these two questions and then answer this post.
Why does the school give us the computers? (for educational purposes)
Is facebook being used for educational purposes? (No)
And if you say well I do homework with my friends online, there is a great option for you, iugo. Seeing everyone that posts about how they want facebook not blocked for a little more time, you can go on your home computer. EIther way this goes students should not be this concerned if facebook were to be blocked an extra two hours... the true question is "What does facebook actually give you besides a gossip center?

I think that blocking facebook would be a bad idea. If it is because of parent complaints on how much time there kid spends on facebook, it is their responsibility to limit it. School shouldn't be the judge of how we spend our free time, only how we spend our time at school. We shouldn't all be punished because for a few kids. if your going to waste your time, your going to waste it wether its on facebook or not. You can waste your time on something else.
And people would just find a way to get around blocking it.

Facebook is obviously a huge part of most our daily lives. I usually dont even check my regular email anymore because its so much easier to click on the tab for facebook.

Wow, I am impressed that you are all writing. You're awesome. Kudos to Mr. Peterson for getting the ball rolling. Here's my advice: leave facebook open after school. Meanwhile, keep on eye on balance in our wonderful, rich, God-given lives--do we at least try to... eat well, exercise, get outside, have some fun, laugh at least five times a day, read some poetry, listen to some music, spend some time in quiet (hard to come by), do some homework, spend time with friends (maybe even on facebook ha ha ), spend some time with God, count our blessings, and get our sleep? Hope we do. On good weeks, yes. God bless and Amen.

.... in continuation to my last comment.
In the past facebook has caused problems in school, even if we dont all admit it, the majority of us where always on it in class because, lets face it, school is not the most exciting activity for most of us. Anyway the problem was solved by blocking facebook during school hours, which is a fair compromise. The school should be able to monitor and control things that go on inside the school and keep their students from illegal and explicit content on the web. But outside of school, it is the parents responsibility to monitor their own children. If a student is spending an excessive amount of time on facebook outside of school, the issue should be handled by the students parents and not by the school.
I have no problem with the school blocking certain websites for the good of the students, but facebook has caused no real harm to anyone. Quite frankly, I have a problem with the school trying to control my personal life outside of school, and I am insulted that you would threat me with more homework because you have an issue with how some students spend their free time on facebook outside of school.
As some of the earlier posts have already said, it is the schools job to educate us. This school has no right to limit what we do with our free time. You worry about the education, and let us and our parents worry about our personal lives.

you are creating a school of hackers.
we will find away around it.. and turn into hackers

yea i agree... laptops are the worst idea...

I think that facebook is definitely a distraction, however there are games and other websites that are distracting too. If facebook is blocked permanently then people will find something else to do. It is the school's right to make the decision, but I don't think its necessary. We don't need the school babying us and setting up all these restrictions--we are in high school and should be able to handle it on our own.

This is ridiculous..
yes you gave us the laptops but we should have full access if we are paying for any of it.. and whatever we miss is our own faults teaching us life lessons, and you shouldnt have to be our babysitters so don't, most people think laptops are dumb, the only 2 things we use are google and applications with word documents, and if you take away facebook time and add more homework people will be really angry and hate the laptops anymore, not even including these are one of the worst types of macs there is, but just because were not working on homework 24/7, or doing something involved with school... does not mean you have to "punish us" by giving more homework and taking facebook time away. Some people don't even have home computers and use our laptops to communicate with long distant family and friends, which is free rather than take a long distant call to them. There are many reasons to argue with this situation. You can take your pick. Suck up to the Tech people because you dont use facebook and let others suffer, or you love homework because you are odd. Or go against this and Disagree for one of the thousands of reasons to keep facebook time, and keep the same amount of homework, i mean how busy are you? even if you dont use facebook your gonna get more homework, do you want that???

Please don't block facebook. I could not survive without it. When I am not on facebook, I am thinking about being on facebook. In school, while I'm asleep, when I'm in the shower. All the time. If you block it, my life will be over. Please no, no.

KEEP FACEBOOK!

As high school students, we are capable of managing our time, and we need to be given the chance to prove that. If administrators block all of our opportunities to fail, how will we ever succeed? Honestly. If all of our lives are sheltered by parents and teachers who just want to 'lead us in the right direction', we'll be so exposed and lost when we graduate. But if we learn now that time needs to be managed between school, work, sports, and entertainment, we'll be better prepared for loife after high school.

"Facebook is the inevitable root of human civilization squandering the hopes of pure unadulterated democracy"

- Aristotle

honestly, could this be anymore clearer? why are we arguing about this. come on people. Rise up to the demeanor of time and fight for perfected humanity.

A Chapel speaker once said this place looked like a Turkish prison camp. Blocking facebook will only take away more freedoms and make that analogy complete.

I think that facebook should be blocked the same way it has been. During school hours but not when school is done.

I think that it would be pointless to block facebook outside of school because we could just go on our home computers and still be distracted by it. I don't think it should be up to the school to decide how we spend our free time. If we aren't doing our homework because of facebook, that is our problem, not the schools, and our parents can ground us from facebook if they want. But I do agree that facebook should be blocked during school because it is a distraction from what we are supposed to be focusing on. I have not taken care of my responsibilities because of facebook before, but that is my problem. Even if you do block facebook, there are other games and chatting things that we can go to, so blocking it won't solve the problem.

Hey Jon... will we be able to use facebook in this turkish prison camp???? O man i hope we do!!!! YAYYY FACEBOOK

Honestly, I don't think student have put much thought into the sacrifices their parents make to send to a christian school. It really is a very large cost yet most parents choose to send their kids to our school regardless because they feel that strongly about their children's education. Spending those minutes, on facebook, that your parents paid for in good will is very inconsiderate. The argument that we need to keep facebook so that we can learn responsibility is ridiculous. I hear this argument all the time yet I know you're the ones on facebook all the time and are far from acting responsible. If you want to make that argument on the stance that we need to be responsible then you have to make the actions to prove so. As far as I'm concerned, if you don't you have no right to an opinion on this. If you can't act like a responsible adult you shouldn't be treated like one. So if you really care about keeping facebook you should stop being so ungrateful.

The time used up by Facebook is definitely a problem, but the solution is not more homework. I can only speak for myself, but I've had some days when I'm getting less sleep than is healthy because I'm running from this to that and barely have time for homework, let alone Facebook. On the days that aren't as busy, I enjoy chatting with my aunt, who lives in Indiana, through Facebook, along with my friends closer to home. I've also used Facebook before to ask my math teacher some questions on homework, which has been great.

Personally, I'm perfectly happy with the way it is now. It makes perfect sense to have Facebook blocked during school hours, and if people want to spend their free time on Facebook, they can go for it. The problems arise with excessive use, and that decision lies with the user. As others have said, we need to accept the consequences of our actions and learn from our mistakes.

HC's mission statement and the goals for the laptop program can both be found on hollandchristian.org. Does blocking or opening Facebook help or hinder us when it comes to those goals?

It's been said, "the only way to avoid mistakes is to gain experience. The only way to gain experience is to make mistakes." So here's the question: are we gaining experience from our mistakes, or just making them again and again?

I think you have a total right to block it at school, but it should be your parents who decide if your spending too much time on Facebook and not enough on schoolwork

The laptops provided by the school give us a great opportunity for learning, and although I myself use my computer for more than schoolwork, I have to say that the school should have the final say in a matter such as this, because it is because of them that we have the laptops in the first place. Some people have said that since we pay for the laptops, we should have full access, but in reality that is not true. We pay for only a small fraction of the laptops, and you are receiving even more for your money, because you receive a tech desk with people willing to help you, even on the most menial of issues. If the school thinks that Facebook is too much of a distraction from schoolwork, then by all means they have full rights to take it away. Don't get me wrong, I like having access to so many things on our laptops, and sometimes I wish we had even more access to things such as YouTube, but that's just not what these computers were provided for. This is an opportunity that I have seen only with HC and one other school, and I can remember back to when the idea was introduced and everyone was all for the idea. But until every student pays 100% for their computers and all repairs necessary, the school still has complete control over what you can access, what is on your computer, what kind of computer, etc. and any complaining is just greedy. It's a cliché, but what would someone from a school that doesn't have this do in such a situation? I would not be happy with tighter restrictions, but we are given so much already, so we should at least be content.

One thing you should take into consideration when you monitor facebook: I usually open facebook, and I just leave the tab open the rest of the day when im not using it. Maybe im the only one who does this, but if im not, that could explain in part why the school thinks everyones been spending too much time on facebook

grantv18
Today 10:41 AM

Well, seeing as how I have absolutely no free time until 9:30 or later everynight, I don't think that more homework is the solution. Also I don't think that banning Facebook will make anyone go outside, and if someone is choosing Facebook over going outside, wouldn't they more likely choose playing video games instead of going outside? And why should the school decide weather or not I go outside or go on Facebook?

Also to what Jake said, I do the exact same thing.

Ryan Wassink

I think that we should ban Facebook. I have no friends and think that the only reason that people like it is because they actually have friends and like to talk to them. The only thing that I like doing is listening to the cass in my amazing purple jeep. I really want to get 42 inch super swampers and i DID FIND SOME ON CRAIGS LIST BUT I STILL WONT GET THEM. People should not be on facebook and should spend there time trying to land kickflips like me. I STINK SOOOO BAD A SKATEBOARDING THAT IT ISN'T EVEN FUNNY. I amd a Jesus freak..... thank you and amen..... by the way... whenever you see me in the hall you can kick me in the kneecaps.... that would make my day thank you

I agree with both sides of the argument. Facebook should be blocked because students can't control their time. Students are always complaining that we don't have time to get home work done, yet we spend hours upon hours on facebook. BUT we also need to learn the consequences for it. If you block it all the time, what will happen during college?
Personally i think Facebook should only be blocked during school hours. Teachers already have a problem keeping our attention with bubble shooter filling the students screens. Facebook will just add onto the problem.
I do think Toby Franz is right. We need to find a way to block ALL ways to facebook. Some students have no blocks while others have all blocks. Thats not fair, and i think that is where the issue lies. It should be all students have facebook or youtube or anything, OR no students should.

So, I definitely think the way it is right now is alright. Having facebook blocked during school hours is definitely a good thing. I think it may be best if it were simply blocked only on the school network because on days off, it's still blocked from 8-3. It's not really a huge deal though, it shouldn't be any student's 'life' It seems to be that the younger students in the school have a lot more of a problem with it. I guess it makes sense due to maturity and lack of transportation. A lot of underclassmen can't see their friends nearly as much, so they communicate online.

oh, and if we're given more homework, I'll just go ahead and drop and get my GED

Please block Bubble Shooter. I have been "shooting up" for a couple months now, and it is taking over my life. I shoot up bubbles during class, at home, even while I sleep. Once I got 900,000 points because I played during the entire time that I watched/sang along to "Mama Mia." 900,000 POINTS!!! It has sold my soul to the devil! So please, just do me this huge favor, and take the temptation away from me. I'm going insane. This is not a joke.

Anonymous Bubble Shooter... Please do not reveal my name.

I am conflicted with this. Facebook is a problem with many students in our school. However, I agree with Ms. Arda : it is not the school's place to tell us how to best use our time. I also agree with the students who said that Facebook is used for more than people acknowledge...I use it frequently to easily contact those in my class who can aid me when I am stuck in my work. It is a great way to communicate. I think it is the responsibility of the individual to not waste their time on facebook excessively. To block it outside of school hours I do not feel is respectful of the individual. Once again, it is up to the individual how they use their facebook. For example, I had a problem with how much time I spent online so I cut back to not allowing myself to go on until after my h/w is done,...generally around 9. I think it would be most fair for the block of facebook to be put up during school hours; when it is necessary. thank you.

OK FACEBOOK HOURS NEED TO BE LONGER. END OF DISCUSSION!!

I dissagree with all of this blocking crap.... LOOK A BUTTERFLY RIDING A UNICORN!
this is for the two men sitting across from me!