In recent times, social networks have come under fire about their privacy settings. Sites like Facebook have been in the spotlight. As the Internet because readily more available to everyone, we have to become more aware of who may be reading what we are posting.
Facebook is great, and so are all the other social networking sites, but just like entering our credit or debit cards onto the World Wide Web, there is a fear that there is someone out there might be stealing our identity. As an average college student, I check my Facebook at least ten times a day, not counting the times I check it on my phone. So the total number of times that I check is around twenty to thirty times a day depending on how many times my phone will alert me of a new comment or posting. Twitter is least used by me and I have not even heard of FourSquare yet. There are other better-known social networking tools, such as LinkedIn, Youtube, or RenRen, an Asian version of Facebook.
The trend of excessively checking social networks is mostly viewed in a negative light. Some friends have sworn off Facebook for lent and it is as addicting as games. It takes time and energy away from things we should be doing and paying attention to. Being so engrossed into Facebook or any other type of social networking site can tend estrange us from the rest of the world. When my friends and I are addicted to any type of online role-playing games, we can spend countless hours, sleepless nights, and money to achieve something in the fantasy online world.
I have not regretted anything that I have posted or tweeted on these sites; however, this does not apply to everyone. Celebrities and people of all professions have posted things that they have regretted. One example is the policeman in the following news article from New York Times who listed his profession as “human waste disposal.” Another example is the recent Youtube post by a UCLA student expressing some rude remarks about Asian Americans. We should always remember that everything we post, whether it is in text or pictures, would never be able to be completely taken off the Internet.
Posting anything on the Internet is a risk. Small things, like favorite color or birth date, may someday be used against us. “Computer scientists and policy experts say that such seemingly innocuous bits of self-revelation can increasingly be collected and reassembled by computers to help create a picture of a person’s identity, sometimes down to the Social Security number” says Steve Lohr, a journalist of New York Times reports. Therefore, I do worry about the pieces of information that Facebook or any other type of social network site may ask from me. I have personally had my information taken and used maliciously. It occurred when my mother received multiple calls from a mysterious speaker, informing her that I was pregnant when I was not. They had my number and my insurance carrier right, which worried my mother. I, on the other hand, called Kaiser and was furious with how my information could have been leaked (since Facebook would not ask about insurance carriers). In the end, they filed a report and that was the end of it. That acted as a wake up call for me to be more careful. In another incident, my friend showed me a website that had my address and my phone number and who my parents were and known associates listed. There was no way to take it down. The process of taking it down was absolutely confusing as well.
From my personal experiences, I have learned that we have to be very careful with what we post or what information we give out. Our personal information can be spread around the world with a click of a button. Social networks are now more careful with our information, but we are the ones who will suffer the most if we cannot keep ourselves safe on the World Wide Web.
I think that some YouTube posts have gotten out of hand and the UCLA student that made extremely rude remarks about Asian Americans is perfect example. People can post anything online and it makes me wonder what makes some videos successful and some complete failures? It seems as though YouTube has become one f the quickest ways to gain media attention, if a person gets lucky.
ReplyDeleteI often look on youtube and see videos that has a million hits and I wonder the same thing Katie, why would this video get that many views when in reality I've wasted precious seconds of my life to watch it and it turned out to be really dumb.
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