Facebook...
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
here's an interesting article on Facebook.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060119-6016.html
I also just read one in the Hamilton Spectator on students being suspended for stuff they posted.
We'd love to hear your thoughts...do you like facebook? do you hate it? have you been able to avoid it? tell us what you think...
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060119-6016.html
I also just read one in the Hamilton Spectator on students being suspended for stuff they posted.
We'd love to hear your thoughts...do you like facebook? do you hate it? have you been able to avoid it? tell us what you think...
5/02/2007
Hi everyone.
I just thought I would post a comment on this topic, as I have second hand experience with such incidents, and have debated extensively on the subject.
I do in fact have a facebook acount, but i dont like it. I mainly use it to keep in touch with freinds from LIT/Counseling, and stay informed on events and the like. So though it is a powerful tool, like with many powers it is all too often abused. About every other time i log onto facebook i find something else either disgusting, immoral, harmful, cruel, or just plain stupid. The privacy policy is there, but no one reads it. The pricacy settings are there, but no one uses them ( or at least not effectively.) For example: even those people who make it so that only freinds can see their acount, still dont apply sufficient scrutiny upon who is included in their freinds list. the dilema is as follows: You don't want to be exclusive and risk hurting someone's feelings, so you add everyone you know as a "freind". Then people make the mistake of being overly secure about their freinds only policy, and post all sorts of personal information. I have witnessed at least 3 incidents wherin people were blackmailed by a classmate, who, as an aquaintance, was permited on their facebook acount.
The main story at my school was with regards to a dance. sevral people posted on their facebook acounts that they were going to strap flasks to their body's to sneak in some booze. Their acounts were set to be viewed by everyone and anyone. So our priciple loged on and read all their acounts. Come night of the dance, he was waiting at the door. He singled out the individuals, and quickly found all the flasks, and denied them entry to the dance. Many people were shocked and showed resnetment towards our principle, but really i think it was brilliant. The individuals had posted this information on a public site and refused to implement privacy settings, and thus the information is public domain. Our principle had every right to view all those posts. In doing so he managed to thwart underage drinking, all the fights and drunken intercourse, aswell as all the repercusions of such activities. And honestly, i dont understand how furious these individuals were, as our principle had the respect not to notify their parents or the authorities of the incident. (their parents found out anyways but thats besides the point.) All they lost was their booze and the price of their dance ticket. They got off lucky.
All in all i think facebook is pretty awesome, but the things people do on it is just plain stupid.