The Internet
I got into a debate recently about the usefulness of Facebook.com, a social-networking website which, at first, was limited to college students, but has since grown into a worldwide media conglomerate. I myself am an avid user of Facebook. It is third on my list of things to check everyday, after email, and MySpace, another social-networking website.
Facebook allows its users to explain themselves to anyone they so choose. After you create a profile, listing your name, email address, and all that sort of general info, you add things about yourself that you want other people to know about you. They have a section for your favorite books, music, tv shows, and movies, as well as general interests, work information, relationship/marital status, and a load of other things you could only find out about a person by asking them series after series of personal questions.
After you have all that information logged, you can upload pictures in photo albums, search for your friends, join social groups of common interests, and talk to other people online. Now it has services like uploading videos, an online marketplace where you can buy or sell things to other people, and a "news" feed that lets you know what your friends have been up to.
It may sound strange at first, but it is actually quite fun. Every person who doesn't have a Facebook profile is somewhat left in the dust, and upon entering a real conversation with a person, will inevitably be asked ,"Are you on Facebook?" It is an amazing cultural phenomenon that has come about in the last few years, and without it, one might feel a little paralyzed. This only goes for people, mostly young, who are interested in meeting new people, staying up-to-date with their friends, and gossip. That is not to say that older people can't engage in it, too, but it just happens to be more popular in the college age group currently.
One of the great things about Facebook is it allows people to get access to other people who they might have lost contact with otherwise. For instance, I have become reacquainted with several people who I only knew in grade school and haven't spoken to since then. But thereafter is where the controversy arises. After becoming acquainted or reacquainted with a person, access is gained to whatever that person wants to tell about themselves. I may not have known a person for years, but now, instantly, I can find out what kind of music he or she is into, who his or her boyfriend or girlfriend is, and so on.
It occurred to me that a person could find out basically everything they would want to know about me on the internet, by combination of Facebook and this medium right here. I am out there, ready to be found and had by whoever cares to look. Years ago, before the internet, we had people who were known as stalkers. These people would study a person and find out all sorts of things about them by following them around, hiding outside their houses, doing whatever it took to get close, and it was unusual for them to know so much information about a person.
I'm sure these people are still around. But even more so are people who stalk via the internet. They don't even have to make the effort to follow them in a car or hide in trees or anything like that. They can just sit there at a computer and stalk away. If you're in a private home, you don't even need to wear any clothes while you do it. A person on Facebook or MySpace could spend all day looking at pictures or comparing interests of even playing the Friend Quiz Game, which tests you on how much you stalk your friends or look at their profiles. This can get a little creepy.
The other side of this argument is that I don't put anything on the internet that I don't actually want people to see or don't mind people seeing. If I don't like a picture of me, I don't have to upload it. If I don't like somebody else's picture of me, I can remove my name from the picture, or if they are a real friend, I can just ask them to take it down. It's like having a giant worldwide billboard. I can graffiti someone else's profile, and they can graffiti mine. If the graffito is particularly offensive, I or they can have it removed.
So the question of this controversy is: doesn't having easier internet access to personal information allow for dangerous perversion and unwanted attention? Well, yes, it does. But you have to remember that you are responsible for your own self on the internet. I think there is a part of everyone who wants to delve into people's personalities and get to know them as quickly as possible, but at the same time, there is a part of everyone who wants people to know certain things about themselves, and they display it proudly.
I, myself, have my personality decorating my apartment. A person can find out all about me just by walking around. People who have been to my apartment, or previously dorm room, can affirm this. So for people who don't want strangers looking at their private pictures, don't put them up, or don't befriend them.
If you really stop to think about how many people you know, you might come to the conclusion that you know more people than your parents, and even more than their parents. Despite their years, people in the internet generation are growing up with the internet. There are more people on this planet than ever before, and more than ever before, the internet is helping us all keep track of them, for better or worse. As far as Facebook goes, everyone is a stalker, but everyone is a voyeur, too, at least to some degree.
Facebook allows its users to explain themselves to anyone they so choose. After you create a profile, listing your name, email address, and all that sort of general info, you add things about yourself that you want other people to know about you. They have a section for your favorite books, music, tv shows, and movies, as well as general interests, work information, relationship/marital status, and a load of other things you could only find out about a person by asking them series after series of personal questions.
After you have all that information logged, you can upload pictures in photo albums, search for your friends, join social groups of common interests, and talk to other people online. Now it has services like uploading videos, an online marketplace where you can buy or sell things to other people, and a "news" feed that lets you know what your friends have been up to.
It may sound strange at first, but it is actually quite fun. Every person who doesn't have a Facebook profile is somewhat left in the dust, and upon entering a real conversation with a person, will inevitably be asked ,"Are you on Facebook?" It is an amazing cultural phenomenon that has come about in the last few years, and without it, one might feel a little paralyzed. This only goes for people, mostly young, who are interested in meeting new people, staying up-to-date with their friends, and gossip. That is not to say that older people can't engage in it, too, but it just happens to be more popular in the college age group currently.
One of the great things about Facebook is it allows people to get access to other people who they might have lost contact with otherwise. For instance, I have become reacquainted with several people who I only knew in grade school and haven't spoken to since then. But thereafter is where the controversy arises. After becoming acquainted or reacquainted with a person, access is gained to whatever that person wants to tell about themselves. I may not have known a person for years, but now, instantly, I can find out what kind of music he or she is into, who his or her boyfriend or girlfriend is, and so on.
It occurred to me that a person could find out basically everything they would want to know about me on the internet, by combination of Facebook and this medium right here. I am out there, ready to be found and had by whoever cares to look. Years ago, before the internet, we had people who were known as stalkers. These people would study a person and find out all sorts of things about them by following them around, hiding outside their houses, doing whatever it took to get close, and it was unusual for them to know so much information about a person.
I'm sure these people are still around. But even more so are people who stalk via the internet. They don't even have to make the effort to follow them in a car or hide in trees or anything like that. They can just sit there at a computer and stalk away. If you're in a private home, you don't even need to wear any clothes while you do it. A person on Facebook or MySpace could spend all day looking at pictures or comparing interests of even playing the Friend Quiz Game, which tests you on how much you stalk your friends or look at their profiles. This can get a little creepy.
The other side of this argument is that I don't put anything on the internet that I don't actually want people to see or don't mind people seeing. If I don't like a picture of me, I don't have to upload it. If I don't like somebody else's picture of me, I can remove my name from the picture, or if they are a real friend, I can just ask them to take it down. It's like having a giant worldwide billboard. I can graffiti someone else's profile, and they can graffiti mine. If the graffito is particularly offensive, I or they can have it removed.
So the question of this controversy is: doesn't having easier internet access to personal information allow for dangerous perversion and unwanted attention? Well, yes, it does. But you have to remember that you are responsible for your own self on the internet. I think there is a part of everyone who wants to delve into people's personalities and get to know them as quickly as possible, but at the same time, there is a part of everyone who wants people to know certain things about themselves, and they display it proudly.
I, myself, have my personality decorating my apartment. A person can find out all about me just by walking around. People who have been to my apartment, or previously dorm room, can affirm this. So for people who don't want strangers looking at their private pictures, don't put them up, or don't befriend them.
If you really stop to think about how many people you know, you might come to the conclusion that you know more people than your parents, and even more than their parents. Despite their years, people in the internet generation are growing up with the internet. There are more people on this planet than ever before, and more than ever before, the internet is helping us all keep track of them, for better or worse. As far as Facebook goes, everyone is a stalker, but everyone is a voyeur, too, at least to some degree.
posted by Leland J. Fischer at 1:17 AM
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