Week 12 - Social Networking and Online community

"(Facebook) is set to increase social network, it is not defaulting to private, and letting you making it public. But we are defaulting it public and making you priviate"

Clay Shirky, NYU professor and social networking expert.

I'm sure everyone had the experience of having to at least trying to do a blog ( like this one) or be in a social network to join your friends. Well in my secondary school days, Friendster was the IN thing. And not just that, the MORE social networks you have, like High5, Tagged, Multiply, Who-Is-Your-Neighbour.com it shows you are more connected, more popular, more in demand. (Yes, i was in ALL of them, and this was considered tiny compared to my pals who were constantly updating their pictures to 7 or 8 different social networks).

But i made sure that all my info were private, that;s the funny thing. you are posting yourself online and making yourself 'private' instead of public where anyone can see your status, know your age, where you work and study and you past pictures of ex and embarrassing moments. What's the main purpose of doing all that then??!?!

And with companies looking you up on Facebook. it's frightening to be known that 'anything accessible to me means everything can be acceptable to me'. said by Clay Shirky. If you were clubbing and did something which you regretted, everyone knows, your BOSS knows. And anyone who knows you will see you in a different light (doesn't have to be a good one)

I do have Facebook. But i hardly post any pictures of myself, i usually get tagged along which i think it's fairly okie and comfortable with it. I do post some comments about myself but never reveal anything much and i don't do hate messages or rude remarks online. i think anything online can be turned against you if you used it the wrong way.

So social networks do bring people together. but when you are forced to know a stranger and to be introduced with all the nasty comments and deeds. It's disturbing and not the best way to know and judge people. So be more careful with social networking.