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?

Whether we are out spending time with friends, watching TV, surfing the web, or using our phones, the presence of social networking can always be felt. It seems that almost every time I go hang out with friends, be it at the mall or movie theaters, someone is always on the phone updating their Facebook status or looking through profiles. While on the web, “Like” icons appear across websites, encouraging me to share all of my interests with the world. When watching TV, commercials instruct me to visit a company’s Facebook or Myspace page if I want to buy or find out more about their products, and news outlets want me to follow them on Twitter. Social networking is everywhere in today’s society and reaches each of us in one form or another.

Although I tried to resist at first, I have also joined this social trend and created a MySpace page in high school and a Facebook page in college. I can honestly say that both have been a tremendous waste of time for me, especially MySpace, since I had to customize my page until it looked just right. Although I personally do not like to share much information or post many pictures, I have spent many hours going through profiles and learning things about people who do like to share such things; often things I shouldn’t know. Every day I have to battle the impulse (unsuccessfully) of signing in to my account and checking my feed to see what my friends have been up to. I don’t have a phone with internet access, but if I did, I’m sure I would probably be connected all day like many of the people I observe around me.

Social Media has affected society in many ways. For one thing, people are becoming more and more open to sharing personal information about their lives and some seem comfortable with the idea that their “friends” know so much about them. Most people using these sites see no problem with telling the world where they live, where they go to school, where they work, or who their family members are and what they look like. I think this is something to be concerned about because once something goes online, it never goes away and you never know who might be lurking. Social networking has also affected the way we interact with each other. With the ability to stay connected to technology all the time, people are more likely to send a text or post a message on someone’s wall when they want to say something than to give them a phone call or tell them in person. And even when people are in a room together, it can sometimes feel like everyone is in their own little world, because someone is always on their phone or laptop doing something else.

On the other hand, there are some real benefits to social networking. For one, it allows you to find and connect with long lost friends or stay connected to your family when away from home. Most importantly, social networking allows individuals to organize and communicate information quickly. This can be a powerful tool, as we have seen recently with the protests in Iran and Egypt. Information is power, and social networking allows the populace access to that information which I believe is important for democracies to exist. It is because of this reason that I believe, on the whole, that social networking has had a positive impact on society even after accounting for the negative effects. Social networking is a tool; it is only bad if we aren’t cautious about the information we post about ourselves and others or if we waste our time surfing through profiles when we could be having a meal with friends or enjoying a nice walk down the beach.