Privacy

There has been a lot of drama lately that all seems to revolve around facebook.  I have talked about facebook before.  I'm a HUGE fan of it.  I am always on it.  I love to read what is going on in people's lives, see their pictures and be able to be in contact with family and friends.  Especially friends from school that I have no other way of being in contact with. 

One thing that is not good is it has made us impersonal.  One lady posted that she found out her son was engaged on facebook!  He posted on there before he told his mom...not so good! 

I also have been thinking just how much privacy is to be expected on facebook.  Of course we have privacy settings that we set to try and protect ourselves from people we don't want following us or seeing our pictures.  One thing we seem to forget though, is once a picture is posted or a word is typed it is forever on the internet.  No matter how much we try to be private it is there.  Sometimes we take our fights and misunderstandings to facebook.  There have been friendships broken because of things that have been misconstrued.  Feelings have been hurt. 

There has been a lot of publicity lately about employers and potential employers wanting facebook passwords.  If you refuse you can either be fired or they won't give you the job.  The employer wants to see what kind of friends you have and what kind of things you are following. 

There has also been a lot of publicity about school administrators forcing students to hand over their passwords.  They say it is to protect the school and other students from bullying and threats. 

So where do we draw the line?  Where does it become an invasion of privacy?  What kind of rules do we need to follow?  There are rules that facebook and other social media has set, but unless someone complains then there really isn't anything that is done about them. 

Now, this is my own  personal opinion here so don't anyone get offended if you don't agree with me.  Just say to yourself, "She is full of it and doesn't know what she is talking about", and move on.  I think there should be facebook etiquette.  If you are going to unfriend someone, I think there should be something that pops up where you have to put why you are unfriending them.  So when you are done unfriending, the person gets a note saying you have been unfriended and read the note why.  Maybe they should even give you an option to like that you have been unfriended. haha 

I think that if a kid is under the age of 18, parents should have full access to their facebook.  When you are a juvenile, you don't have rights.  This full access is to protect the juvenile from friending people they don't know that have the potential to be predators.  It will also protect their kid from posting something that could hurt other people or bring down the world around them.  I have a friend whose kid posted a totally innocent comment and it got him in big trouble with the law because of pereception.  It will also protect them from posting pictures they shouldn't be posting.  I think it shouldn't even be an option for a kid to be able to change their password and not tell their parents until they turn 18. 

I also think if you have a friend that posts things you don't like, you either say something to them, but then expect a response something like "then unfriend me", or you unfriend them, or you move past it and don't even look at it. 

If you complain about something that is on someone's facebook page, you should stand up and say, "Yeah, that was me." 

So, those are my opinions.  Take them for what they are worth.  And don't be shy about the smart ass comments or jokes, because personally, I love them!!