Tuesday, January 18, 2011
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.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I was thinking about posting a response but I need to check my FB status! LOL.
ReplyDeleteYou also make the point about what is responsible and the things that we can and or should do. That someone would a Twitter account to purposely harm someone is offensive to be. This is a form of cyber bullying and perhaps a topic we can bring into class?
I agree that the social movement towards social networks can be a positive one. The ability to connect people from around the world affords people opportunities that did not previously exist. As long as people are educated and use the sites cautiously everyone can benefit from them.
ReplyDeleteI understand what you are saying about Facebook as a great way to stay in contact with people. I spent some time outside the States too and I used Skype and Facebook as my means of keeping in contact. Cell phones are unreliable and expensive to be calling between countries so Facebook was perfect. I think those six months I was gone I used more Facebook then email. It is a really useful tool to keep in contact with people, but I think when people are using it to make new friends they have a Facebook addiction.
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of us are just like this, treating Facebook as a second e-mail account (it's so much more informal that we've become accustomed to it and are comfortable doing it where e-mail feels like uncharted waters that "adults" do). I think I've gotten worse than that though, where Facebook has also become almost a second phone line where I can easily chat and catch up with people, where again it's even easier and perhaps more informal than even texting is for me. I know I am beginning to worry about my Facebook account being exposed – I've never had to worry about it much through college, but now looking at jobs I'm starting to become MUCH more careful with what goes on there and I've caught myself refraining from a few posts in good humor that could be misconstrued by an outside party.
ReplyDelete