Social Media – The Good, The Bad and the 'Not-So-Private'

Social media is becoming a bigger and bigger part of our society each and everyday. Everyday millions of people log onto social networking sites looking to communicate and interact with friends, family, and just so many people from all over the globe. I am a member of various social networking websites, from Facebook to Twitter to sites that may not be as common as the two, I am constantly spending my free time scrolling through websites seeing what my friends are doing and communicating with them. I am a member of these various sites in order to keep in touch with my friends even away from school, and to be able to plan out events, discuss homework, and take advantage of the many other great uses for the sites.

I am confident with my privacy settings for all of the social networking websites I am a member of. Through exploring the site as well as having presentations on internet safety, I am able to ensure that only those who I want to are able to see the information I put out. My facebook is set to private and pictures, events, and other information I place on my account could only be seen by those who I accept as a friend. My twitter has been set to private for the same reason, so that only those who I want to see my tweets will be able to. I have learned a great deal about privacy setting and am very confident with my current ones right now. I believe with the settings that I have adjusted, only those who I want to see my information that I put out can, and those who I don't want to be able to see this information can't.

To be honest I am allowing others to see a fair amount of information about myself, but then again I am only allowing people which I allow to see this information to do so. I am allowing these people to see things such as my name, the school I go to, pictures of where I have been and what I do, and my feelings towards many subjects. I often think about the information I put out before doing so, and believe that I don't put out too much information about myself, and have confidence that the information I put out does not harm me in any way.

I believe all the information I put out online are things which are safe to post. This includes things which I believe won't lead anyone to harm me in any way. I try my best not to post any unsafe information such as my age, address, passwords, and things which would seem only logical to keep to myself. I believe I do a good job of seperating what is safe to post and what is unsafe to post, which are those things which will lead a stranger to know who I really am, and everything about me.

Because many of us use these sites everyday it is important that we become responsible users of social network websites. To do this we must always think before we post, or do anything online. We must be aware of the information that we put out and ensure that none of this information will come back to haunt us. It is so important to do this because when we don't think of what we post, and carelessly reveal information about ourselves, the risk of harm towards us through fraud and other acts becomes greatly increased. Our reputations and job opportunities may also be at stake since so many people can see what you post and may make assumptions about you through these things. In order to be responsible users of social network websites we must always think before we act, to ensure that we never do something which we will regret.

By r0yl with 1 comment