Wednesday, October 19, 2011

To Facebook, Or Not to Facebook?

My initial response to Facebook, was "HOLY COW THIS IS AWESOME!" It was my freshmen year when I was finally able to make a Facebook, and all my friends already had one and had been talking about how awesome it was. I was so excited to be able to communicate to my friends yet another, way.

The benefits to Facebook, I think, are the social networking perks. I've have had study groups over Facebook, and I've been able to keep up with friends and family that either live too far away, or I don't get to see very often. I really like that all my friends are "just a click away." But recently in class, I've been thinking about all the neagitive things that come with Facebook. The fact that I can't completly control my personal privacy settings is really starting to hit me... I used to think that, oh who cares? Only people that I add can see all of my personal information... But now I'm hearing that that's not the case. It kind of freaks me out that any random stranger can type in "Jessica Catron" and find out all of my infomation. I'm just glad I don't have a smart phone with GPS capabilities.

The article, "Why Facebook Is After Your Kids," really opened my eyes to the big deal of Internet Safety and kids. I knew that people under the age of 13 had Facebooks. I mean, my cousin made a Facebook for her 10 month old baby... So I knew that they were out there. But I didn't know that the numbers of just how many kids had Facebooks at such a young age, was so drastic. The fact that ANYONE out there in the world can look up these children and find out anything they want to about them, is a very scary thought.

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