Privacy on Facebook

The sense of privacy in our generation is changing drastically. Online, the issue of privacy is seen as what others are seeing on a user's page or what others may be posting on their page. This is different in the past, in that, before people were more concerned with how their information could be used and abused by the government and banks, etc. (Aliases, creeping, and wall cleaning: Understanding privacy in the age of Facebook) Facebookers are able to find others through "tags" on photos and through posts on one's newsfeed. This is creating a sense of transparency that can be exciting and interesting but not always beneficial. Users onlineoften admit to abusing the privacy policies, going through loopholes found in the tagging of photos to get to user's they may not be friends with and also using false names to be able to look through other people's information. Even so, users still supply large amounts of information. With users admitting to abusing information, it is suprising that they feel exempt to the "creeping" and are not voicing the need for more privacy. In a world where you name, birthday, phone number, email, relationship status, place of residence, hometown, occupation, schooling, posts, photos, interests are all up publicly, companies, fraud, and even stalkers could easily get ahold of this information. Although, with Facebook being more and more a crucial way of communication it is less about not getting on Facebook or having one and more about how we can control the release of information. Being aware of the concerns can help the community and further encourage Facebook creators to change and modify privacy and how it is presented on the site.

The Profile Picture: Judging people through online profiles.

In The Role of Friends’ Appearance and Behavior on Evaluations of Individuals on Facebook, Josh Walther and others propose the effects of getting to know someone through online sources such as Facebook. Onlookers tend to make quick judgements about the profile and the person behind the profile. The pictures posted on one's profile is seen as a direct reflection of who they are and their physical attractiveness. A photo taken with a more physically attractive person, or a post from a physically attractive person can then result in users believing that person is more attractive after the fact, this can also work visa versa. Another judgement that can possibly be made is the type of posts on a one's profile. If the posts are regularly positive, users tend to be predisposed to believe that person's life is put together, again this can be turned around.

Facebook users often believe they have complete control over their "self-image" on their page and how they want to disclose personal information. This may not be completely true, other users have a great influence on the user's "image". Therefore when using Facebook, the amount of information and what detail from other flooding in should be noted. Although, should we be worried about preconceived notions from people barely known to us? Before social networking, experience and face value was solely the source of judgement on a person. We cannot base people's character only on their profile that has been sifted through, posted on and made to perfection by the user, its simply not the true depiction of that person.

Visual Argument

This represents the youngest generation and how eventually we will only find identity in our Facebook page. If you notice, on the computer is her profile picture, and that is the identity of an individual on Facebook. Also notice the "original" photo is black and white, representing the "old" way and the tradition way on connecting: face-to-face. The new color photo represents where our generation is going. We need to evaluate if on-screen is how we want to connect and grow our relationships.

Identity and the Professional World.

Often when thinking of social networks, and who uses them, we think of where it orginated and was made for, college. This was true orginially but now, years past, many of the users that were in college are now graduating and leaving for the professional world. This is concerning to many because of the content on college user's profiles.

Companys like IBM are now researching the use of their employee's facebook and their profiles to see how professional their profiles are. The majority of the time, younger employee who used facebook in college have a less professional facebook, this could be observed in pictures or even statuses. [1] Although this seems like a invasion of privacy we really need to evaluate the concerns of the company.

Recognizing there are good and bad aspects in the professional world for social networking, we have to evaluate them:

Most employee need to begin to feel connection with fellow employees to improve the work place and a social network is definitely something that can help with that. Also, it is good for employees to stay in contact with fellow employees to keep up with projects and other things related to work.
But mainly the companies are worried about the interpersonal content on the websites. Younger users tend to put very personal postings on facebook that could be seen as very unprofessional and could threaten the work environment. With this being said, social networking can have benefits but with the format Facebook has given us, it may not always have a place in the professional realm.

With increasing privacy options, users are being to try to work around the obstacles but usually ignore the process altogether. The identity we are giving on Facebook may not be something we would want our employers to focus on, and so it is questionable if we should limit our use once we begin our career.

directed Blog post 2

Definition of social network:

social network service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people, e.g., who share interests and/or activities  (Ellison, Nicole 2007)

With this definition we see that social networks are supposed to build our relationships. Is social networking serving its purpose? On an average a facebook user has 300 friends (Stefanone, et al., 2008), with this statistic being 3 years old the average may have gone up tremendously since then. With this many friends are we able to be interpersonal with all of this, or possibly build a relationship completely based from an online relationship?

In the article “The value of online friends” users were put into an experiment to test user’s relationships that were considered “strong” relationships, (already developed outside of social networking, face-to-face), and weak relationships, (people never met face-to-face). The experiment showed that relationships already developed were more likely to respond and build through facebook, while online based relationships were less likely to respond. Even then, relationships that were newly developing offline were likely to strengthen with help from a online source such as Facebook. Therefore, Facebook is more likely to be used to keep in touch with old friends and help strengthen relationships with new friends.

So to answer our question, yes and no. Yes, social networking can build our relationships that were previous build from face-to-face interaction. This is being said, facebook is not all bad, it may serve the purpose of simply serving to our existing relationship, but in no means should it be our sole interaction with one another. This study showed me how real interaction is so important, because without that initial relationship there is barely anything to base off of online. Social networking should be used to keep up with old buds, and get to know new buds, but not to actually meet friends through the computer screen.

Warrant:Multitasking

Studies from many different universities have been noticing a trend. College students are less interested in their education and classes and more interested in their newsfeed. During lectures students are found on their on their Ipod rather than listening to the guest speaker, Facing Facebook.

In result of this, professors claim there is less "critical thinking" in their student's education. Although some universities encourage technology, is communicating with fellow classmates worth university money that could be used for research and facilities? During classes students tend to have several different windows aside from facebook up while listening during lecture. This causes a lack of focus and therefore students aren't able to create and learn as well as before. This isn't to say there wasn't distractions before, a hidden magazine in a book is a perfect example. The involvement of computer and technology inside of classrooms has definitely created very different habitsand therefore reducing quality.

In a classroom at the University of Colorado, students were asked in they read the New York Times, only a few raised their hands. They were then asked if they logged on facebook that day and all raised their hands, Facing Facebook. Facebook is beginning to be the main domain of college student's internet use. This could be dentrimental to our learning and academic society. With this information, should professional and teachers completely ban facebook in a professional setting? I propose we should simply be able to recognize the negative effects of the overuse of it, and find the appropiate setting to use Facebook.

25 Things I hate about Facebook.

This video is a great depiction of how we waste our time on Facebook. Although Julian makes us laugh, we should also listen to his message. Is it really necessary in our daily lives to have a poke war? We spend countless hours have a virtual life when we could have a real one.

Facebook and Twitter taking too much time.

Originally networks such as Facebook or Twitter were a place to reconnect with people you may not have in contact with otherwise, when going off to college or moving. Now facebook and Twitter are becoming a overwhelming time consuming network that users feel obligated to update even hourly. For some users it is starting to control their lives.

Celebrities such as Miley Cyrus are starting to recognize this and take action, Cyrus deleted her Twitter last fall. Since then the trend of freeing yourself from networking continues. "That desire to unplug has made an unexpected success out of websites such as Web 2.0 Suicide Machine and Seppukoo, free sites that automate and turbocharge the otherwise laborious manual process of scrapping your online self." -Some ditch social networks to reclaim time, privacy.

What I am realizing now is we are less worried about old friends, and now getting bombarded with people we don't know and information we don't need. Once in the digitial society it is hard to leave, feeling as if you're going to miss something. We are wasting our time updating our status about who we went to dinner with, then enjoying dinner with that actual person. We need to remember to take time from networks or we may soon be so exhausted and not have any motivation left for "real life" face-to-face connection.

Communication

On sites like Facebook and Twitter, the main focus is communication. Reaching old friends, posting clever statuses, posting events, but all of these things are digitial. More and more often we are communicating through these digital sources, to our boyfriends, our parents, down to talking with our professors. This is important, but it may not be what our main source for "talking" should be.

A large part of our face-to-face conversation is Body Language. Although you may say something, your body may be expressing something completely different. For example, if you are trying to impress a boss you don't get along with, you may say nice things to them but have your arms crossed. A person's body language is not limited to just physical movements, but eye contact, space, or the way someone may talk. This is very important to tune into with others to see how they are truly feeling.

With this we need to evaluate ditigal conversations. The only part of the conversation we are hearing are the preconcieved well thought out sentences scrolling across the screen. A person may be simply portraying what they want you to see. With face-to-face conversations it is all spontaneous with no time to set out what is said. Also they can't hide their body language behind  a computer screen.

Facebook may be a thriving new way to talk to people, but we seriously need to consider if this should be our primary source. We may be losing genuine conversation, and turning into an even more artificial society.

Logos

Exploring my topic, I have found that the issue of social networks is very relevant in our society right now. In the article In a Wikileaks Era, Balancing Public and Private, people around the globe are wondering if the rise of social networks will benefit our society. After the release of Government confidential documents through Wikileaks, we are now realizing how blogging can completely change and abolish our thought of "privacy". What is now being proposed by blogging and internet supporters, is the decrease of privacy will help the society become more transparent.
Although transparency is important in society, it has also been braught to global leaders attention that this "publicity" may be going to far. With Wikileaks's scandal in the past, we now need to learn from it. With so many sources available online it is hard to distinguish what is correct. Therefore, regulations need to be proposed on what is released and what is "kept off the record". Although this is true, it is hard to decide where the line must be drawn. Releasing confidential documents may be unloyal to our country, at what point would the government be taking our freedom of speech away by making regulations on what we can publish online?

Issue: Social Networks

Today, in our society, social networks are being used more and more. College students find themselves on Facebook when they should be listening in lecture, celebrities use Twitter to update their fans, and Myspace is still used to promote bands. Although these networks are a huge part of our life, the question if they are "good" for our society should be asked. Are we spending too much time online "connecting" and not stopping to talk to the person next to us?

A little background check.

Hey, my name is Kayla Kohler.
I am a freshman at Northwest Missouri State. I am from Omaha Nebraska, if you know Omaha, I am from Papillion. My family is somewhat large. I have 2 parents that have been married for 28 years, and 3 sisters. My parents raised us in a christian environment, and from that I have developed a strong relationship with Christ. In high school and now college, being involved in Christian organizations and becoming close with Christ has been very important to me. A favorite moment in high school from that involvement was going on tour with a Black Gospel Choir. :) I am now also a Tri Sigma. These things have shaped who I am and my beliefs, so yeah. :)