As we all
know, social networking sites have changed the way we connect and interact with
other people on a daily basis. Now, more than ever before, sharing your
thoughts and showing moments of your life with those who you care about the
most is a regular routine that, needless to say, we all do. Think for one
moment about all your “friends” you have on Facebook. Over the past years,
Facebook has made several improvements on the way you can customize your
security and privacy settings, keeping in mind the growing number of users and
the type of information you share with others on this website.
Did you think
about your “friends” on your Facebook page? Well, now think about this – how
many of those “friends” do you know in person? When was the last time you had a
conversation face-to-face with one of them? These questions are important
because they determine how safe your personal information and reputation are on
such websites. One of the major problems, I think, with Facebook is that you
can copy and paste pictures from other people’s profiles. Most of us now know
that once you upload an image or type something on a website is going to stay
there even if you later decide to delete the image or the paragraphs from the
original source. By asking you to think about
your “friends” on Facebook, I’m trying to get you to think about what you post
in the form of images and in words. Did you know that some employers look at
your Facebook profile before extending a job offer? (CBS News)
This is just
one of the many things you should think about before writing or sharing images
online. For example, defamation (libel) and extortion are common practices
linked to the information you share about yourself and the things you say about
others on social networking sites (BBC). Therefore, you should be aware that
anything you say, for example, about a product or a person that has been
purposely exaggerated to harm or to create bad reputation can have severe legal
consequences. By now you may be wondering how
is this linked to my friends on Facebook? The answer is simple. If you,
like many young people do, accept friend requests from people who you never met
in person before because they are a friend of a friend of your best friend, you
may be exposing yourself to an unnecessary risk.
Please check the following
websites for further reference.
Works Cited
Parker, Laura, USA Today. Courts are asked to crack
down on bloggers, websites. New York, 2006.
Parker, Laura, USA Today. Jury awards $11.3M over
defamatory Internet posts. New York, 2006.
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-10-10-internet-defamation-case_x.htmBBC. Social Media Basics - Etiquette and libel on social networks. 2011.
Traverse Legal. Defamation on Facebook and Twitter.
27 October 2012.
