Oh social media, where would we be without you?
In my opinion we would be in a much better place. I hate how dependent people have become on social media sites. Checking Facebook accounts and twitter feeds seems to be the only thing people do with their free time anymore. It has become a part of everyone's daily routine. And I am speaking from experience. I'll admit that in this case I am being completely hypocritical. I too have a Facebook account that I check throughout the day. However, I have never posted one picture on to Facebook, I rarely post anything, and if I am ever tagged in a photo I do not want associated with me, I remove the tag immediately. On top of all of that, Facebook is the only social media account I have and regularly use. Perhaps this is why it is so easy for me to see the issues that sites like these raise.
The main concern that has been brought up in reference to these sites is the issue of privacy. These sites are free and do not require background checks. Anyone can make an account real or fake. In the article Online Social Networking as Participatory Surveillance by Anders Albrechtslund, he uses the term "a snoops dream". I was shocked at how true this statement was. I have always been aware of the dangers of social networking but I have never heard it put in this way before. For some reason it struck me. Perhaps because of how true it is. Online social networking could be compared to heaven for a peeping tom or a sex offender. How could it not be. There are FREE websites which can be accessed at ANYTIME ANYWHERE BY ANYONE. There is nothing stopping these kinds of people because teens are so free with what they are posting. In Albrechtslund's article he quotes Jon Callas (who is the chief security officer at the encryption software maker PGP) "I am continually shocked and appalled at the details people voluntarily post online about themselves".
Now if people are so intent on posting things about themselves for the world to see they should at least have control over who in that world has access. This is where privacy settings come into play. People may not realize it but privacy settings could be saving you from dangerous situations. They are not just there to hide embarrassing pictures from your parents, they are there to keep people with the wrong intentions from having complete access to your account. If there was ever a bright side to social networking, this is it.
Another point that Albrechtslund raises in his article is the reminder that the Internet is like an elephant, it never forgets. Once something is out there, it stays there. People may think that deleting something off the web is just as easy as posting it there. The people that do believe this are in for the shock of their lives. The Internet is like an enormous archive of EVERYTHING. Nothing gets deleted, it just gets filed. The problem with this is that your past can very easily come back to haunt you. For example, a sixteen year old posts a picture on their account of them intoxicated at a party. Now at the time it seems like the perfect picture for their display picture. However, 15 years later when that same sixteen year old is applying for a job and the company does a background check and finds said picture, do you really think that is the person they are going to hire? Not a chance. Because of something that was posted years ago, this person lost a job opportunity.
All of this makes you think you should probably put more thought into what you post online and who you let see it.
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