Rewind a couple of years back, when I was a gawky little teen, I remember it was a pretty big deal to put up a picture of yourself on the internet - in case it fell into the wrong hands. Infact, people who posted their pictures online were considered uncool! But today, I have over 800 pictures of myself on my Facebook and dozens of albums with my friends being silly and
having fun. It's like a storage space for me, like the time I lost my laptop, THANK GOD for Facebook as I still managed to have all my pictures, my memories.I see kids as young as ten on Facebook with their pictures and I'm left a bit amazed. Recently, a certain incident left me shocked. Sure, you hear horror stories about people getting sacked because of their Facebook profile. There is an email that has been doing the rounds about this guy who got sacked because he pulled a sickie and his Facebook stated that he was actually not ill - just wanted a day off work.
A colleague of mine, with whom I've had my difference recently did a really stupid thing. She took pictures of herself in the office, dressed in one of our's clients clothes and posing in a very glamour model way - think The Sun page 3 model and posted it on Facebook. To take pictures were stupid in itself, but to post it on a social networking site - what was she thinking? To add fuel to the fire, she actually had the client on her friend list who was outraged at the pictures. It's an easy to guess she didn't stay in office for long after that.
The security on my Facebook is set to super high, so someone who is not on my list can't see my pictures. Heck, if you google me, my Facebook profile won't show up. But recently, my boyfriend (the geek!! *grins*) told me that if he wanted he could access all my pictures without my consent. I was left a tad bit baffled.
So what is this insane desire to be on a social networking site? How long before we move on to something shiny and new? The desire to be popular and take part in this virtual fuckery mocks me as I continue to actively take part in Facebook.
xxx
2 comments:
Great post! People are so used to this web 2.0 stuff they hardly pay attention to the impact of what they’re doing. I admit I googled people while recruiting for my department and I dropped some candidates because of what they posted on some of those sites. I’ve always been careful myself on the internet. Online for 14 years now, my name generates less than 10 hits on Google. Nevertheless an ex-girlfriend found me on Linked-In and even called me at the office. Although I’m very into IT and the internet, I hardly use social networking sites. I only got a Facebook account because some good friends disappeared on Messenger to live on at Facebook, I’ve got a LinkedIn account just to accept the many requests of business partners and suppliers, I was on Twitter just to stay in contact with one special person (now I only use it for news feeds). Am I paranoid about this ? I don’t know, perhaps I’m going to use those things more in the future. The only thing that scares me a bit is that my children soon will be confronted with those things. Now only playing Sesame Street on the internet, soon they will be invited by friends to Messenger, Facebook … A friend of mine told me this horrible story. He’s got 4 kids and his oldest daughter is 12 and – excuse me for this – gorgeous. A guy at her school made up a full Facebook-site for her, with her name & pics … My friend called the guy’s parents to talk about it and to make the guy close down the page. The thing is, technology is moving way too fast for many people, they got new stuff being offered and they just use it … without even thinking about it. Great topic again Shrutters, thanks :-)
Like i said in my post, when I was a teenager which was not that long ago - we were literally scared to post pictures online. Now a days its the norm or the "cool" thing!
I understand your worry about your kids growing up in such a digital world. It opens a lotta doors, specially for the minds of the growing lil ones.
The trouble is there is only so much you can monitor and hope that the people the meet are not weirdos.
Or better still, by the time your kids grow up, you never know online stuff will be totally uncool again \o/
Shocking to hear about your friend's daughter...part of growing up in the digi world i guess.
Thanks for your comment x
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