Over sharing is a common practice on Facebook and Twitter. Some people using social networking sites use their “What’s On Your Mind” feature, a little too literally. They are updating when they go to class, work, gym, the bathroom, and on vacation to let their friends know their whereabouts at all times. However, there are some dangers with telling all your “friends” where you are at all times – they know exactly when you are not home.
When you leave for a vacation, you don’t leave a message on your home answering machine saying “I’m not home – I’m on a beach in Mexico”, simply because you don’t want just anyone calling your house and hearing this message. We also go to great lengths like, leaving lights on in the house and getting the neighbours to pick up mail to make it appear that someone is home, when we are gone.
So why do people post this information on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook?
On Facebook you could have hundreds of ‘friends’ who have access to your page and can read your status updates. When we update our Facebook pages, sometimes we can forget how much information we are throwing out there and forgetting about how much access people have to this information.
I recently found an article on Globe and Mail about a new feature for Twitter which allows people to automatically track their locations through a tracking tool which users simply have to turn on or off. With the growing popularity of people “tweeting” their locations, now they don’t have to waste an entry telling people – Twitter will do it for you. There are other social networking services that also track where you are, like foursquare, which basically rewards (gives you points) to tell people where you are.
The Globe article goes on to say that Facebook will soon follow with an application to tell people about your whereabouts. I know I won’t use this. I use Facebook as a social networking site, a place to connect with friends and share photos with them – I don’t feel the need to tell people when I’m going to the gym and class. The people who need to know will already know – without the help of Facebook. There is hope though. There is a new website called “Please Rob Me”, which is trying to inform people of the dangers of over sharing through explicit means.
While social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are convenient to check up on friends and family and share pictures, there are risks as well. Posting your location has its dangers. You don’t know who is tracking your Facebook page – but then again – maybe I’m just paranoid…
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14 years ago
i totally agree people update there status' and facebook pages with too much information all the time. I know some people who meet someone one night while they're out and then add them to facebook forgetting that this pretty much stranger now has access to a lot of their personal information. That exact same thing happened to a good friend of mine and all of her roommates. They all went out of the Country one summer and all posted in their status' that they were leaving and would be gone for a few weeks mindlessly doing it to let their friends know and the day after they left there house got robbed of all TV's, cellphones DVDs, laptops etc. so you have to be really careful about the information you give out online.
ReplyDeleteAlso with employers now if you don't have proper privacy settings they can see onto your facebook page if you have pictures, wall posts and so forth that you might not want potential or current employers to have access to. It's definitely something people need to think about before they give so many people such a personal, in depth look into their personal lives.
You are exactly right. When you put information on your profile, sometimes you forget how many people really have access to it. Especially if you advertised that you just bought a brand new MacBook for example, and post on your Facebook that you are leaving for the weekend. Not a smart move.
ReplyDeleteThere have also been many discussions already about employers looking at your Facebook page. What if you went out one Monday night and that's the reason why you were feeling "under the weather" the next day and your boss saw the pictures. Without Facebook they may never know. But because of Facebook we have to constantly monitor what sorts of information we are putting out there for others to discover.