When the idea of college begins to sink in for seniors around this time of year, there is a popular trend for them to change their Facebook name to something like “Alex Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Jones” or “Jane imsocoolimsocoolimsoooooocool Smith” so that prospective colleges will not see all of the heinous photos they’ve posted of themselves. It seems that we as seniors are way too liberal with what we share online because otherwise this silly concealment method wouldn’t be necessary.

Many seniors agree that there’s a general sentiment that pervades their final year of high school: “Just make it through this year, you’re almost done, don’t screw this up.” Understandably, “not screwing up”, involves taking the necessary precautions to ensure colleges see you in the best light possible. But just because we can take the necessary precautions, does that give us free reign to do whatever we want?

High school students party, especially seniors. That’s a given. But there is no logical benefit to sharing this proclivity with The Internet and Beyond. Just because Joe Senior posts a picture of himself holding a mystery-filled Solo cup, it does not equal “instant coolness.”

And when Joe Senior changes his Facebook name to Joe alkdghagkjaworu Senior, it is an immature cover up display that attempts to conceal photos that simply have no reason to be online. Sure, we sound like stickling parents, but the risk is not outweighed by any serious benefits.

Colleges often admit that they don’t have time to look through every applicant’s Facebook page and check for inappropriate pictures. That’s understandable and expected. But due to the fact that so many seniors go to such lengths to cover up their names, it seems as though some people do actually care about something.

So why do seniors care about covering up their Facebook identities? It’s not about colleges sleuthing out our bad deeds (they can’t possibly look up thousands of applicants each year). It’s not about trying to be funny or different to gain attention (who doesn’t have something ridiculous on their Facebook Wall?) Maybe it’s a matter of self-independence and a “stick it to the man” teenaged angst mentality akin to that of James Dean’s in Rebel without a Cause.

Whatever the case may be, it doesn’t seem called for because, if it is motivated by angst (like many high school student actions are), then it would require that we’d have anxiety about the morality of what we’re doing. This could be more of an immature attention attempt mixed with hormonally-induced rebelliousness.

Therefore it goes without saying that many of us will look back on some of our actions, this probably being one of them, with discontent. Like lots of things we do in high school, whether it be chucking sex toys down the P Stairwell or just generally acting off instinctual, kneejerk ideas, oftentimes it’s not the best idea. It can get us in trouble, and in this case, give off the wrong message about our maturity. And who really wants that the year before 99 percent of us go off to a four-year college?