The thought that everything we do on the computer is recorded, including google searches, interaction on social networking sites, photos etc, and that our identity can be traced from our searches, is both incredible and frightening. It is especially frightening! What is so frightening is that so many things can be misinterpreted - what looks like a list of disturbing searches could in fact be linked to a screen-writer who is conducting research for a murder-mystery novel! OR he could be the real scary deal in which case things need to be followed up more closely! But who is to know what is real and what is not? In the world wide web, what is truth and what is fiction?
What I find most disturbing from a real-life perspective, is the employers judge their future employees by examining social networking sites, such as Facebook. If employers want to see who we are as a person, please ask for an interview - our private life should remain private and our public life is what we choose to display. Facebook should not be accessible to just anyone! How did this ever happen??? Even if you did de-activate your facebook account, your information will probably still be floating around in a cloud somewhere...doesn't anyone else find this worrying??? :-)
All in all
13 years ago
You've redecorated. How lovely!
ReplyDeleteYes, Jenny, I too worry about information floating around about me forever. When the hell did I sign my right to privacy away? I don't remember doing that. Do you remember signing something? Why has Google taken a picture of my house and put it on the internet?
This is a big concern of mine and I've experienced firsthand the lengths to which an employer will go to dig up dirt on an employee. Whilst global communication is forever expanding, I feel my world gets smaller and smaller as the number of people I have to be wary of when posting things online increases. I find it ethically questionable that employers would stoop to such levels, when we all know that there is a divide between our real self and our digital self. This is why face-to-face interaction will never die - it's where reality is. And after today's lecture I'm very close to shutting down my Facebook account.
ReplyDeleteThere are certainly some people who ARE shutting down their Facebook accounts, but the flip side is that in a few years if you don't have a traceable digital presence, that will start to look odd in itself ... and employers will be asking questions about why you're NOT found on the web!
ReplyDeleteUltimately, everyone has got to make a personal decision about this and related issues. For what it's worth, my personal opinion (as I said in class) is that as long as you remember that everything you do or say online is semi-public, you can find ways to make the most out of being online and enjoy the connections and communities it gives rise to, without compromising your privacy in any serious way. For me, that applies to Facebook as well as Twitter and the many other places you can find me online - SlideShare, Flickr, LinkedIn, FourSquare, UrbanSpoon, my wiki, my blog, etc, etc.
For an informative perspective by Nancy Baym (a well-known net scholar) on why, despite her annoyance with Facebook, she's decided to stick with it for the moment, see: http://bit.ly/9L22qk
Thanks for that link Mark,
ReplyDeleteIt was great in highlighting the benefits of Facebook. It is easy to get angry at the lack of privacy, but there are options to lock down your information and I have done this as much as I can. I don't think I will be removing my account! I also think it is important to build these connections and be up with the times, because if you refuse to to embrace these technologies, they will still move on and you will be stuck in the past!
There really are issues surrounding a digital presence. Many of my friends from school have been on facebook for years. An old friend we were no longer in touch with recently joined up and since has been inundated with messages with people from school wanting to catch up and meet with her! I mean she has been in the same city, living at the same house for all this time, but without Facebook no one knew her anymore. Scary! There is a really obvious risk of being lost if you dont maintain a digital presence.
ReplyDeletenice post..
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