Social networks and personal safety

Nowadays most young people have a Facebook, Hi5, Sonico or My space account and many do not realize that the information they place there can bring serious consequences. Can someone be fired for making comments in his Facebook wall? Can a teen commit suicide over an inappropriate picture? Can a secret identity be revealed and cause a national security breach?

Here are some examples of what happened to real people using social networking tools: in England, in the U. S., in Australia, another in Australia but from the employer´s point of view. Do you have a Facebook or Myspace account? Do you include your real name, address, country-city or telephone number? How about personal pictures? Can pictures be seen by anyone, friends of friends, just friends or just some friends? Are you happy to have more than a hundred friends? Are they really your close friends or just acquaintances? Do you have second thoughts when you publish messages in your wall or upload pictures or videos? Did you know Facebook has rights over the pictures and videos you post there? Have you seen inappropriate materials in the pages of your friends? How do you react to that? Do you block them, do not do anything or simply delete them from your home page?

You can take pictures and videos with many cell phones these days and resend them to many of your contacts. Have you done that? Tell us about your experiences with social tools.

On Facebook

Do you remember we mentioned in class when reviewing 111 and 112 that there are always new words that need to be defined, described, compared, contrasted, etc.? We also referred to Blogs and Wikis and some of their differences. What would a good definition of Facebook be?

Well, I googled it and this is what I found: "Facebook is a free-access social networking online utility that easily connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet"

It definitely is not a simple or static webpage. It is made up of many networks, each based around a company, region, or school. People can only see the profiles of confirmed friends and the people in their networks. Privacy settings can be set at any time to control who can see what on Facebook.

"The Wall is a really interesting place to look for buzz, because when one person writes a post on a friend's or a group's Wall, tens, hundreds, or even thousands of people might see it; those viewers may read, digest, and pass on that information, spreading it virally."

By the way "free-access social networking online utility" is a compound word or complex noun phrase, the center of which is ... what word? Try to untangle the phrase into its components. Let´s see who can get the right meaning.