The trouble with social networking

Headline: The trouble with social networking sites

I doubt I am the first person to notice the crazed hype surrounding; 'Facebook', 'LinkedIn', 'Twitter' and other online social networks that are allegedly; “taking over our lives”. Not mine!
I realise that people swear by it, but people also swear by dodgy scams, 'Lifeline' hangover defence and by nail polish to fix ladders in tights – it does not mean it is a guarantee. I can see the addictive charm and it does not take a genius to figure out that it is the predecessor of 'Bebo', not to mention the latest vogue online. As much as I love being able to keep up with family abroad and friends who live far away, I loathe being bombarded by invitations to events, that I have no interest in attending or from people who have not had an actual conversation with me in years.

I view social networking sites as essentially a platform, to show off to people; where you have been, what your up to and how popular you are. The latter annoys me, as to be honest, a copious number of the 'friends' are people you know, not people you would call close friends. They say you can count your close friends on one hand, well according to these sites, you would need 5 pairs of hands, if not more to list out your best buds.

Social networking sites can bring out the worst in people. I know I have been a culprit of checking out who's dating who, who's working where and what people I know are up to – it is that voyeuristic tendency that humans possess - better known by the term being a 'nosey parker'. There is an increasing number of parents of tweens and teens logging onto their offsprings pages or taking it a step further and creating fake profiles so that they can spy on their childrens; 'Nimble' or 'Bebo' pages and see who they are talking to and what they are talking about. As harmless as many of the pages prove to be, often parents get a shock to see that their children have interests that they didn't even know about.

Due to the hectic nature of the average twenty-somethings life, I will admit, being able to keep up with my real friends (not just cyber-mates) is a great asset and it means that I can keep in contact with people all over the world. However I do not appreciate being bombarded with event invitations and date offers from old class mates that I have not spoken to since 6th class and probably wouldn't speak to me even if we were in the same location. Furthermore, do we really need to know 25 random things about someone who you went to school with 15 years ago and have not seen since then? People want to know everything about your personal life and tell everyone about theirs. Do I really need to kept up-to-date with frequent postings about the unsavory habits of strangers?

All too often, frequent posts and messages show us more than we bargain for. Last week while I was scrolling down the home page of a social networking site, my eyes caught sight of a picture of a naked friend. Worse, he was in a compromising position – something I really did not need to see! Living freely and transparently is a good thing, but somethings should be kept private. Then suddenly I was asking; “Why? Why put these racy pictures up online for hundreds of his contacts to see. What does it serve?, does it make him seem cool?” If anything I have lost respect for him and I am pretty sure the next time I see him in reality, I will be reverting back to that crude image in my head. The fact I was subjected to this material bothered me. I was just so happy that I don't have younger siblings adding my friends as their friends, as so many of my friends would have and I can imagine they would be livid, if they knew that there little sister saw their male friend in the nip.

My friend Lisa was horrified to see her ex-boyfriend of only 6 months have “I am going to be a daddy”, as his status. When she clicked on his page, pictures of his new girlfriends bump were emblazoned all over it. She did not deserve to find out in this way. Another mate was in tears after finding out that her slovak friend had been killed in a tragic accident. She found out via his profile page, before she received a phone call from his family.

I have heard more than a few people cry bloody murder when 'colourful' pictures of themselves showed up on 'Faceparty', 'MySpace' or 'Flickr', 'kindly' tagged to them by friends. They applied for jobs and their prospective employer now knows they enjoy soft drugs and wild nights out. Web pages containing risque pictures, snide remarks and provocative comments about drinking and hook ups may make you look immature to employers.

Perhaps the next time you think about posting information about yourself online, consider if it is 'grandmother safe'... meaning if if is okay for your grandmother to view, your safe and if it is not, then think again. A lesson for the clueless, think before you lie to someone. These websites make it all too easy for people to find out the truth. Remember corporate spying has never been easier. It never ceases to amaze me how many people complain about being caught out, because their boss has found out that they were hung-over from a wild night on the town as opposed to having the flu. Writing a status message such as; “Loving Ibiza“ is a crucial mistake if you have sent texts to the boss, that you are in bed with a dose. You will get caught!

The problem is that information could well be there in years to come, and what may seem cool now, may not look cool when your children look it up online in fifteen years time. 'Facebook' found itself the subject of much controversy when they negated any rights users might have to permanently remove their content from social site and also admitted that they are selling data about users to advertising agencies. Despite thinking that once you leave the site, your out of the 'digital' community, your information is still very much at large on the web.

Regardless of all the intrusion to privacy, there is something fascinating and attractive about social networking. After all, why would 175 million users sign up to 'Facebook' if there was not something alluring about the social networking site.