I’d like to begin with a personal story. My family is pretty tech savvy on my dad’s side. The younger generations, as expected, have Facebooks, email addresses, YouTube accounts, and anything else you might use the internet for. So do the older generations. My relatives, who range from their 20s to their 50s, are all on Facebook, and have the potential to watch my every move.
Anytime I update a Facebook status, I’m letting my family know where I am and what I’m doing, and even what I’m feeling. This is usually fine, and doesn’t cross the line, but sometimes when I’m venting, I have to be careful. Not only could a future employer possibly hack my account and see the results of a bad fight with a relative, but likely, that relative could see a post if I’m not careful about what I say or how I restrict my profile.
I remember one time in particular when I, in a fit of rage, put a not so modest status about how one of my relatives was really irritating me, and I definitely didn’t use the kindest of words. Another relative saw this post, and was pretty offended. This one post alone sparked an hour long conversation through Facebook Inbox messages, and only after that hour were we able to come to the agreement that I had to be more careful about what I say because I can’t possibly know if someone could see it and be offended by it.
This is really related to the idea of privacy and secrecy because a long time ago, before social networking, the only way relatives could find out this same information was if they stumbled upon your diary, or overheard you on the telephone (but I always hid my diary in the best of places).
After that incident with my family, I started using the feature that Commonsensemedia.org recommends. “With Facebook’s privacy settings, you can set your viewable information to Everyone, Friends of Friends, Friends Only, or even a customizable setting that only allows you to see it.” More people need to focus on not only limiting their profile regarding what people can see, but also about what they’re posting.
Facebook isn’t the only realm of technology that can cause tension with family members. Email is yet another thing that you need to be cautious of. As Jenny Preece talks about in her article about online etiquette, one of the problems identified with poor online etiquette is “sending spam and forwarding bogus virus warnings.” As I’ve come to realize, this is a really important issue in terms of privacy. I just recently got a virus, or my account was hacked on my email, and the program of the virus took it upon itself to forward to everyone in my address book.
One of my relatives hadn’t encountered something of that nature before, so she clicked the link, at which point she said that the website tried to steal information about her in order to steal her identity.
In having the email addresses of my relatives saved on my computer, it makes it exponentially easier to distribute bad websites and spam than it would be if the internet didn’t exist. When you get a spam letter in the mail, it’s not because your relative “forwarded” it to you, and it’s easy to throw away, and most importantly, opening a letter can’t put you at risk for identity theft.
The internet can cause all sorts of problems with your family, from stress and tension because of something you say, to crime with unreliable and dangerous websites. It’s definitely something we need to start looking into more often.
SOURCES:
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/facebook-parents
Photos:
http://www.infosecwreck.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/facebook-privacy-settings-original.jpg
http://www.webspam.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/spam.jpg
LOL - love that you quoted me! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteMelinda Clayton
Just like how we must watch what we say in real life, we must also be careful as to what we say on the internet because our internet interactions are starting to mock our interactions in day-to-day life.
ReplyDeleteIn the case of the status about your family member, you probably wouldn't tell someone else in your family who would tell the person who you referring to. Similarly, users have to be cautious to restrict such information from the person that the posts relate to and also people who relate to that person...if that makes any sense.
But I do understand that people may not think of such things when using social networking sites such as Facebook because they are more informal. But I also think that the role of Facebook is starting to change and therefore the actions of the users must change as well.