Facebook may seem harmless to some, however, there are many hidden risks that a lot of people are not aware of. According to Ida Bergstrom, "Online security holes and users' naivety are combining to cause privacy breaches and identity thefts." There have been numerous situations when a person's Facebook profile has been used against them; in instances such as being fired or hired for a job and in a court as evidence.
For those of you not familiar with what Facebook is, "It is a free-access social networking websit developed by sophomore Mark Zuckerberg of Harvard University in 2004 (Leandra Sebastien)." For many people Facebook is a way of keeping in touch with family and friends scattered across the United States and the world. However; along with the fun of Facebook also come risks and negative effects. As mentioned earlier, one of these risks is having information on your profile page used against you. There are many stories of people being fired from their jobs due to pictures or other things posted on their profile page. In Ottawa, Canada a grocery store employee was fired for negative comments about their job on Facebook (Bergstrom). Some of the other major negative aspects of Facebook are that it is addictive and time consuming, can cause procrastination, encourage hackers, and can lead to problems at work and in relationships with others.
In my opinion, these articles convey important messages about the dangers of Facebook. Each author revealed convincing points about the different dangers of Facebook. I found both the articles to be very informative and provide good examples with good explanations. Despite the dangers of Facebook, I believe it is not a bad way of communication as long as you are cautious. Some of the perks to using Facebook are being able to keep in contact with friends and relatives who I do not see often. Another perk is being able to post pictures and look at and comment on pictures of your friends. However; after researching and reading these articles I have realized that Facebook has several dangers and negative effects. Now that I am aware of these dangers I will be more careful about pictures I post and things I write on my Facebook profile. In addition, I will be more careful about the people I am friends with and the people I talk to on Facebook.
In conclusion, there are several important questions we need to ask ourselves. Am I spending too much time on Facebook? Do I post or write things that are negative and could get me in trouble? Are my pictures appropriate? These are just several of the questions we should be asking ourselves every time we log on to Facebook.
Happy Facebooking (safety first)
-Samantha <3
Links used on this blog post:
Have you heard anything about the recent changes in Facebook? Not the ones that just happened a week or two ago, but the ones before that. Anyway, when Facebook made some of its periodic shake-ups, they reset users' privacy settings, making them much less restricted. Check it out: http://www.nytimes.com/external/readwriteweb/2010/01/20/20readwriteweb-the-3-facebook-settings-every-user-should-c-29287.html?em.
ReplyDeleteYou'll probably have to copy and past that URL--don't think Blogger will automatically make it active.