“The rise of social networking online means that people no longer have an expectation of privacy.” – Facebook founder Mark Zukerberg
Throughout the years social networking websites have increased and popular sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and etc. have gained a lot of active users. We create profiles, add friends and family, exchange messages, and share photos. Facebook has grown to be the largest social web service in the world, with nearly 500 million monthly active users by our most recent estimate. The fun new feature I have started getting into on Facebook is called “checking-in”, which you can let people know where you’re at any time and any place and tag whoever else is with you.
The great features I enjoyed between sites like MySpace was the countless privacy options. You had the ability to choose what you wanted people to see and share unlike Facebook where you have the same related features but you either show everything to people or you hide them. In my case I love Facebook but since I’m friends with my family and other acquaintances I don’t want them to know certain things I share only with my friends. Back when I used to be a Facebooking freak I would express how I was feeling whether it would be happy, sad, excited, bored, tired, mad, etc and if it was a negative post I would have my family constantly question me what was wrong and it would be something personal that I didn’t want to share with them. I am guilty of frequently looking at my news feed, reading status updates, and seeing what’s going on in my friends’ lives. I noticed that people have really gotten comfortable with sharing and becoming more open with others online and this information can be taken down and used as evidence against you and can affect you in school, personal relationships, and work.
Employers and authorities are now monitoring what people think were private websites and using the contents they find against them. Now, there is a software that will monitor social networking sites of future employees for content that may interest employers and officials. Privacy is a fundamental human right and while that may seem less true when we're operating on corporate turf like Facebook. Social networking sites continue to have a range of issues such as online privacy and child safety. I believe that it isn’t the sites fault for violating people’s privacy because it is our choice from the moment we signed up to the words we write in our About Me section. The only people to blame are us because by posting on these sites we make ourselves vulnerable and so transparent and our personal matters well-known even by those who are insignificant in our lives.
What I like about the social networking is the ability to connect with family and friends. Ever since I signed up for Facebook, I was able to connect with old friends way way back in fourth grade! It was really nice to see how they changed and how they grew up. Some already has a family of their own, married with two adorable children. Some are school oriented trying to get into medical school. It was really nice to be able to talk to them again and just remember what we used to do when we were kids. Another thing great about it is keeping in touch with family oversees. I’m able to chat with them and even see them via Skype. Back then only phone calls were available, and it is super expensive to call internationally. Now we have free programs that can do video and audio chats. I know that social networking has its cons also, but I really think that it is the person’s actions that puts themselves at risk. Why put your home address and phone number and not put your profile page on private? It’s common sense. If publicized your personal information you will be in danger.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all I completely agree with you that it is not the sites fault that we have a lack of privacy, we have a lack of privacy because we like to share our information with people on the World Wide Web, and once information is on there that means that it is on there in writing for access to everyone. People need to take some personal responsibility; it is not the websites fault. Like you said we make ourselves vulnerable and transparent, and we do have control over this. Parents need to take responsibility for what their children are doing on the web as well. We all are guilty of this though, we all post things on Facebook or MySpace that are spur of the moment thoughts that we don’t really think through and are then held against us. I understand that companies going through our personal social networking sites might be infringing on our privacy, but on the other hand they need to have an idea of who they are hiring and what that person is really like outside the office. I wouldn’t want to hire someone that I thought was a wonderful person in front of my face and then a totally different person on the weekends.
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