Technology has become not only a luxury, but also a necessity to get anything done in this new age world. Think about it, we rely on the alarm clock to just start off our day. How did the older generations ever manage to wake up before 11:30? Or how people got in touch with each other before the cell phone or even all telephones in general? It baffles me to think of world without the technology we have grown up with.
With that being said, technology has made it to where communication with anyone in the world is as easy as a click on the mouse. Facebook has taken over this industry, shoving My Space, Xanga and others way behind. While many great things come out of this new means of communication, I have seen firsthand a great deal of negative things that have been brought to the table by it. It is absolutely necessary for our generation to really watch what we say on these communication websites.
Back in my junior year of high school, a CNN newsworthy story involving Facebook came out of the usually quiet and quaint school. One of my friends at the time had just been into fight that ended on bad terms over a boy. Anyhow one thing led to another and a Facebook page was created in order to embarrass my friend. There were all sorts of hateful things on the page such as pictures and horrible statements. Most everything on the page was x-rated and directed to cause pain and hurt feelings to my friend (one of the girls in the fight over a boy). The police got involved and ended up arresting the “Facebooker” for hate crimes. CNN then came in and it was a headline story. I was shocked that just a few things posted on the internet can lead to jailtime.
This is a prime example of a new style of crime that has hit the market for “criminals”. Seeing people who I knew fighting, leading to the arrest of one of them because of Facebook really opened my eyes. You really have to be careful of what you post, because it can literally be seen by anyone, and put in the wrong hands, trouble will come.
This idea reminds me very much of another incident that occurred at my high school in my senior year. I had a classmate that had created a video game map of our school. It was designed in the game Counter Strike. The catch was that you could play with people in the map and shoot and kill in an identical cyber replica of my school. This classmate posted a video link of his map on Facebook for everyone to see that ultimately led to his dismissal from our school. The administration took the student’s map as a terroristic threat and expelled him. This also made headlines on the news and was very controversial in the community.
I guess the point I’m trying to get at is that Facebook has to be treated with great respect and that you must, absolutely must, be aware that anyone can see what is being posted. As the website enters our life more and more some may even go as far to say that it is the ultimate tool for criminals. No matter if it is a hate-purpose page, video or even a status saying where you are; bad things can easily come from it. With all of that being said I intend to use Facebook daily for the benefits that it brings about, but at the same time keeping thoughts in the back of my head for my own personal safety and even freedom at that.
