2. Social Networking and Privacy

There are many social networking sites, however the only one I use is Facebook. In high school I used Myspace, but ever since I entered college I have started using Facebook instead; other networks are not very appealing to me since none of my other friends use them. While I was studying abroad in Rome last quarter, I used Facebook a lot in order to stay connected to my friends and family. However, since I have been back in the United States I have used it much less since I am around my friends and I can just use my phone to contact those not physically present. I check my Facebook daily though as it has become a habit; I treat Facebook as my emails, that is I check it at least once a day. I do not find the cultural move toward social networking as a negative trend. It has benefits that I find to be very useful. Social networks allow people to communicate with others all around the world, as long as one has access to the internet. I know this first hand as for four months I traveled through twelve different countries in Europe, being able to talk to all my family and my friends nonetheless; I found this to be very useful and helpful. However, social networks have their drawbacks: sometimes one's personal life can become exposed. Sometimes one may expose too much about themselves or others on a social network; this can lead to hurt feelings, embarrassment, and injury amongst one or more parties. I personally have not ever put up a post that I regret, but I heard of examples. One example was with Twitter: somebody hacked the Twitter account of St. Louis Cardinal's coach Tony La Russa. In his career, La Russa has lost two players to drinking and driving; the hacker made a joke on his account about these two players. La Russa received much criticism for this, however soon after his innocence was discovered. Nevertheless, this example makes one worry about his or her privacy when it comes to social networks. Although social networks have their benefits, they still have serious drawbacks.