feel torn about the status updates on Facebook. In a way, it's a good forum to express myself. But it's there for everyone, or rather every "friend" to read. There are some people who are my "friends" on Facebook who I wouldn't really call my friends. Should they really know about what I feel and think about every day?
This whole social networking thing has changed the definition of what a "friend" means and it certainly has changed what "stalking" means. Is it considered stalking if I follow a stranger's activities on a social media site, without them knowing? Unless they have changed their default privacy settings, I know which events they plan to attend, I know who their friends are, I know what movies they like and I know what they are talking about on the walls of their friends. Most of all, I can see all their photos. Is that stalking?
Like it or not, this social networking phenomenon is here to stay. Welcome to the age of digital privacy, or lack thereof. For now, I am buying stocks of software security companies. While preference for Google or Yahoo, Facebook or MySpace may change, the need for secure information isnt going to go away.
Posts
1 comment:
I've been thinking the same thing. I compare my Facebook with my daughters (which you could do) and notice how much bigger and more open their networks are. (You're sort of in the middle age wise between my and my 18 year old I imagine, but closer to her.)
So I think part of what is happening is that peoples expectations are really different now, the people who grew up with facebook and myspace don't really think of many things as private that I do.
It really comes down to needing more "zones" of privacy. The physical world has provided this for ever. I walk around my house in my PJ's. If I want to get undressed I go in the bedroom and shut the door. If I want to go to the mall I further increase my level of privacy by putting on more substantial clothes.
As good as the social networking sites are they don't really permit this, or not easily. It seems like a good start would be
acknowledging the basics we have in the physical world as a hierarchy: self, spouse, immediate family, extended family, close friends, acquantances, co-workers, strangers and finally those we oppose or shun.
Post a Comment