Who is to blame
Social networks are the latest buzz. Well actually they are already quite old but they are still very popular. On the other side there is sometimes a lot of scaremongering and confusion. I found this especially true in my old home country Germany. The Germans are always at the forefront of all things safe and secure etc. (See Google Streetview and scrambled images of their houses http://googlesightseeing.com/2010/11/google-street-view-in-germany/) This is in my opinion mainly controlled by the media. The media has the power to make or break a hype like social networks.
I do have friends in Germany who are on facebook and lock the whole thing down so that all functionality is disabled. Although this is the most secure way to use facebook it renders it kind of useless. Family answered our question: "Why are you not on facebook" with "Never! I will never allow anyone of our family to spread all our secrets out in the world wide web! Never!! You never know who is going to read it and what they do with the information". So back off a second, does this mean that if someone opens an account with facebook and then posts that 90 year old Aunt Hilda had a secret lover when she was 20 you really can blame facebook for this breach of secrecy? Or isn't it rather true that if you don't want something to appear on any social network you just don't publish it?
The next fascinating thing about social networks is the people who call me a stalker. Why? Because I follow (!!!) them and sometimes reply to their posts. I look at their public pictures and send them a "Happy Birthday" on the day they turn a year older. And then I hear "Are you stalking me?" Ok sorry, I thought that's is one of the reasons why you are on facebook and why you accepted my friend request. Or do you just collect friends but don't really want them to see anything you publish? Please excuse my confusion, but why are you then in facebook?
The latest scare on facebook is the fact that you can now subscribe to people's updates and it will be shown in a ticker box on facebook. Suddenly half of my "friends" ask me to unsubscribe from this and block any notifications about their updates. Ok, I see. Hmmmm. Now this ticker box is only visible by me. My facebook setting allows my friends to see my other friend's updates. This was always the case. And I must say in the past I found new "friends" on facebook only because I saw something interesting they wrote on a friend's profile we have in common. People, this is called networking and - funny that - is part of a social network. Again, if you do not want people to read something then just don't write it. Easy! And if you only want specific people to read something then send them a personal message via facebook.
facebook even allows you to set the visibility of every comment you make. Just set it to "friends" by default. facebook allows you to set a lot of security settings which will protect your secret public posts. Like this one where you can select that only your friends can see what you post on your wall.
But still the easiest and safest way to use facebook is, don't say something in public you don't want the public know. Easy!
facebook might have its flaws especially in the security area. Same as with other networking sites. And yes, users should be aware of it. But in the end it is a platform where you can do whatever you like. They way you use it is purely your responsibility. So use it but use it wisely!
I do have friends in Germany who are on facebook and lock the whole thing down so that all functionality is disabled. Although this is the most secure way to use facebook it renders it kind of useless. Family answered our question: "Why are you not on facebook" with "Never! I will never allow anyone of our family to spread all our secrets out in the world wide web! Never!! You never know who is going to read it and what they do with the information". So back off a second, does this mean that if someone opens an account with facebook and then posts that 90 year old Aunt Hilda had a secret lover when she was 20 you really can blame facebook for this breach of secrecy? Or isn't it rather true that if you don't want something to appear on any social network you just don't publish it?
The next fascinating thing about social networks is the people who call me a stalker. Why? Because I follow (!!!) them and sometimes reply to their posts. I look at their public pictures and send them a "Happy Birthday" on the day they turn a year older. And then I hear "Are you stalking me?" Ok sorry, I thought that's is one of the reasons why you are on facebook and why you accepted my friend request. Or do you just collect friends but don't really want them to see anything you publish? Please excuse my confusion, but why are you then in facebook?
The latest scare on facebook is the fact that you can now subscribe to people's updates and it will be shown in a ticker box on facebook. Suddenly half of my "friends" ask me to unsubscribe from this and block any notifications about their updates. Ok, I see. Hmmmm. Now this ticker box is only visible by me. My facebook setting allows my friends to see my other friend's updates. This was always the case. And I must say in the past I found new "friends" on facebook only because I saw something interesting they wrote on a friend's profile we have in common. People, this is called networking and - funny that - is part of a social network. Again, if you do not want people to read something then just don't write it. Easy! And if you only want specific people to read something then send them a personal message via facebook.
facebook even allows you to set the visibility of every comment you make. Just set it to "friends" by default. facebook allows you to set a lot of security settings which will protect your secret public posts. Like this one where you can select that only your friends can see what you post on your wall.
facebook might have its flaws especially in the security area. Same as with other networking sites. And yes, users should be aware of it. But in the end it is a platform where you can do whatever you like. They way you use it is purely your responsibility. So use it but use it wisely!
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