Social Networking and Privacy

Your task for this assignment is to record your thoughts on the prevalence of social networking. How often do you use social networking sites/tools like Facebook, Twitter, or FourSquare? How much time to do you spend texting, tweeting, or checking status updates on your phone or computer?
Do you think the cultural move toward social networking, constant access, and the loss of privacy it sometimes brings about is a positive/negative trend on the whole? What are some of the benefits and drawbacks of this entanglement between our personal lives and technology?  Have you ever "over-shared" or texted, tweeted, or posted something you have regretted? Do you ever worry about your privacy when it comes to using these tools?

Much of my time on the computer is spent on social networking sites. Ever since Myspace, social networking sites have become somewhat of an addiction. Actually, it’s a serious addiction and I am sure many people share it. I feel that regardless what medium, what seems like constant downward spiral of how much privacy we really have is very negative. In general, if one is led to believe that he/she has privacy in say their own room, but there just happens to be some sort of breach (a webcam which spies on its users when not in use, for example) then one would obviously be very uncomfortable if they found out. In the same sense, we all use Facebook assuming that we are protected via the settings we apply. However, in today's society, with hackers and even the people who operate Facebook who have opportunities to possibly view our profiles, we really are not safe. One thing to keep in mind: we are putting OUR content on THEIR site! Just as we take midterms and place our answers on the teacher's questions, we are submitting our "information" to them. 

I feel that with the cultural movement towards constant access and social networks leads us to overlook privacy sometimes. When logging onto Facebook and Tweeting, and even texting, I do not feel the need to think about privacy, it is something which I overlook. Whenever cases arise in the news which blast privacy settings, I do sometimes consider what I have up on social networking sites. One thing which really bothers me is that we were told to clean up our Facebooks and Myspaces as we were applying for colleges. I thought to myself that it would be extreme if an admissions rep had to look through my Facebook profile along with my application in order to make a decision. My high school was a little crazy though. 

I feel like texting is an issue which really has not been as dealt with as others. I am sure every day, more and more text messages are sent throughout the world. I send who knows how many per day. The privacy for text messaging is limited to the sender and receiver. However, I am sure that our service providers have some sort of access to them. I would think that when used for the wrong purposes, (for example, a group of criminals texting each other before they commit a crime) text messages could be read. I don’t know if it has ever happened but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a mechanism in place to prevent things from happening.

Unfortunately, I don’t think the issue of privacy will ever be resolved in our society. More and more loopholes will be found or created by the inspired individuals who populate our world. We can choose what we put on the internet though. We also choose to have Facebook, Myspace, and other social networking profiles. I feel that in the end, the user is in control of privacy, it’s just what the user puts out for the world to see. Whatever is typed, posted, tweeted, Facebook status’d, etc. is basically in some way or another: public.