Social Networking and Privacy: More Than it's Cracked Up to Be?

        Social networking is a huge part of our society today and is only becoming more significant with time. I know that I can speak for many people when I say that much our down time at home is consumed with browsing other people’s facebooks or sending a few dozen text messages per hour.  As technology has developed, besides the typical functions our cell phones have including texting and talking on the phone, we have been able to check our email, facebook, or twitter wherever we may be at a given time in our busy day.  No longer must we be sitting at the desktop computer at home to talk to a friend on the internet who may be across the country.  Our phones and laptops allow us to be social on the go.  

  Personally, I do not use facebook as much as I know most other people do.  I am not on it 24/7 and it does not follow me everywhere I go.  Part of this has to do with the fact that my cell phone does not have access to the internet and the other part is the fact that I do not feel the need to constantly be connected with people online by repeatedly checking status update or posting a wall comment on pages of my friends as I am walking across campus or getting a bite to eat.  I like to wait until I have a reasonable amount of time to dedicate to catching up with my family and friends or more than just a minute or two to send a meaningful message or post.  I am not saying that I don’t spend time on facebook but I am saying that like many my friends, I am not continuously checking my facebook everywhere I go.  I must be sitting down with my computer to check my facebook or chat with other people.  Now texting is a different story.  Like most teenagers and young adults my age, I am on my phone quite a bit texting my friends and family.  I am not saying that texting is any better than being on the internet checking facebook updates, however my means of communication is limited through capabilities that only a simple cellular device is efficient in doing.  I have been trying to be aware of and control my text messaging and only do it at the appropriate times and if you ask me, I have improved quite a bit.  

  One thing that I think to be a significant drawback about social networking and constant access is the potential of losing our face-to-face, raw communication skills.  People are so often online and talking with people indirectly through written text on either a computer screen or cell phone that eventually it would seem that we would lose our ability to have in-person, healthy, raw, relationships with our friends and family.  In my opinion, communication through text such as email, facebook chat, or texting creates a barrier between us and those who we are communicating with.  You are unable to see facial expressions or hear the tone of voice of which the person is speaking when you talk to them through written text.  Emoticons such as “ : ) ” or an acronym such as “lol” are not real emotions.  Seeing a happy face on my screen is much different than seeing the smile of my best friend in front of me.  Much is lost in translation online and many things can be misinterpreted or misunderstood due to the lack of raw communication. I know that I personally have misread a text message and gotten upset when all could have been avoided but having a real conversation with the person.

  Social networking has opened many possibilities though.  I have friends who live across the world in Australia and face-to-face communication is not always possible with them.  Sometimes the only way to stay connected with friends and family is through texting, emailing, or facebooking and so in this way I do think that social networking has benefited us but sometimes I feel like we too easily and readily rely on it as our primary source of communication.  

  I do not really think about my privacy when it comes to social networking or text messaging because I am usually cautious of what I say and post anyways.  At one point I thought about it, enough to change all of my privacy settings online to “friends only”.  However now that I have done that, I do not give a second thought to what I post as I think that only my closest friends and family will be able to see it anyway.  Hearing and reading about all the facebook privacy issues that have been coming up have made me more alert about what I post and my own personal privacy online.  I am always thinking about how I come off to those people in my social networking circle just as I think about how I act in my day to day life.