Now before i talk about my subject of choice let me state some things first. I do use social networking sites, and i do provide them with my information. I also tag others and i am involved in the spread of information over the internet.
It came to my attention today when my supervisor, we'll call him "Brent", started talking about the internet and how there is too much information on everyone on the web. He made a statement that made todays blog about what it is, and im quoting roughly " someone could fart upwind, and itd be on facebook an hour later". Now as silly as this is, things like this are true, and probably in less than an hour. Especially with sites such as Twitter. I am not personally familiar with any other sites like twitter, but you get the point. And i would also like to say that i take no part in "tweeting". Anywho, these websites are fun and they are good ways to keep busy, but there are many dangers involved with using these sites. Let me now say that i am not trying to be all gung ho, dont do this dont do that, i am simply talking about what i want to talk about. i probably have said this before, and ill say it again, i dont care what you think. I'll start with twitter, the way it works, as you most likely already know, is that you "tweet" about what you are doing(you type in a certain amount of characters what you are doing). A lot of people use it for updates for fans. Rappers, athletes, and artists use it to say when something is released or whatever. But the people who just use it obsessively to say, im going in the shower, im out of the shower, im eating a bagel, i just changed my tampon. This is when it gets a little annoying. I digress, my point is that when someone is constantly telling people where they are and what they are doing, especially even more constantly with mobile devices, it can be dangerous. Say a stalker was "following" a girl on twitter, and he reads, "parents just left for hawaii, home alone till friday" this is basically an invite for the stalker to come on over and squish the kittens, if you catch my drift. And other sites add to the problem of internet stalkers, they could use facebook to find a girl to follow on twitter.
Which brings me to my main topic, the spread of personal information. I will use facebook for the examples since this is the site that i most commonly use. The problem is that everyone on their facebook states everything that they could ever not want people to find out about them on the site. Think about it, it has all of your personal information right off of the bat, email, phone, and even address sometimes. And then people go on clicking sprees, clicking the infamous, "like" button and then their profile is updated, telling anyone and everyone what they like, where they like it, and how to put it there.... waittwuhhhht? Now i know that the profiles can be private, and that things can be blocked. But there are many younger people who dont block these things, and lets be honest, anything can be hacked. A stalker or theif could literally compile all of the info on a person and learn that person to a t. T for tagging which is another point. "brent" is worried about being tagged in pictures from his sons wedding, where he drunkenly danced his ass off. I dont know why he is so worried, but nonetheless, if someone is trying to keep private, such as brent, tagging becomes a problem. Some people may not want to have it known what they did, especially in job finding situations.
So i guess what im trying to say is, that as much as i love all things computer and internet and data, there is almost too much of it out there. Pictures used to be personal things that you would look back at in albums when you were older, with friends and family. Now a days everyone whos a friend on facebook, usually including people you dont talk to, can see them. This applies to all the data. It used to be that only your good friend karen, who is a dbag btw, was the only one who knew that you like unicorns, now the whole wide web knows. And yes, i know it is the persons choice to put these things, but it is so common in social groups, that some people may do it without thinking. You and i are becoming a part of the system, whether we like it or not. The days of privacy and personalization are over.
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