Recently, social networking has definitely been on the rise. I’ve never seen so many groups, businesses, and people so involved in one type of media. On one hand it is a great thing. Social networking sites, like Facebook and Twitter, are places where all these different things can come together, interact, promote, and advertise. On the other hand, there are many risks involved by putting yourself out there on the Internet, like privacy issues. A question that constantly runs through my mind whenever discussing this topic is, “When is it ever going to be enough?”
What I mean when addressing this question is at what point will a site be satisfying enough. Constantly there are updates and changes being made with or without the consumer’s approval that are supposed to make the site “better,” but are they? A lot of these changes have to deal with what information can be passed around and just trying to see how much they can get out of their users. I remember way back when the most popular networking site was Xanga, a simple blog where you could just write whatever you wanted and see anyone’s information. Yes, there were major privacy issues. However, at least for me, this was only the beginning of the whole “watch what you put online” crisis. Next came Myspace, a much bigger privacy issue. Unlike Xanga, Myspace asked for a lot more personal information. And now, Facebook, one of the highest used social networking sites, asks for a lot more specific information. At what point will these sites stop asking for more information?
On the whole, I feel that there will be a negative trend in accordance to the privacy issue of these social networking sites. How are we able to know for sure that some of the things we don’t want to be shared aren’t being shared? It’s very scary to know that once something goes online, it never goes away.
As for my usage of social networking sites, I can say that I do have access all of the time. Now with smartphones, there isn’t much you can’t do while not on the computer. Even though I just ranted about all the information sucked out of us through these sites, I do spend a lot of my time on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. However, I am very careful about what information I post and who is allowed to see it. Most of the time, I use these sites just to see what everyone else is up to; creepy I know, but really everyone does it. Occasionally I will update my status, but for the most part I don’t like people knowing exactly what I’m doing all of the time. My main usage of these sites is to keep in touch with old friends or basically killing time. A definite positive part about social networking sites is that it allows the lazy people to keep in contact with other people and the world. With only a few clicks, you can see what your friends, old classmates, and family are up to, along with what’s trending in the world and popular news topics.
