Self Disclosure and Social Networking

After reading the article entitled, “ Social Networking: Are we revealing too much,” I questioned whether I’m disclosing too much. These horror stories that were discussed, many think this can’t happen to them, but it can. Maureen Paperella assumed that adding a friend she went to school with would be harmless. However, one of them turned out to be a burglar and after tracking her life through Facebook posts and updates, they broke into her house and stole 10,000 worth of Maureen’s valuables.

This opened to my eyes to ugly truth of social networks, and how some people aren’t looking to reconnect with friends or catch-up but something more. Another horror story mentioned was the recent one with the homosexual student at Rutgers. This student was publicly humiliated through the means of social networking, by two other students who are now being charged for invasion of privacy.

There has been recent attention on social networking about the positives and negatives. In addition, we need to understand the difference between public and private information in relation to what we are posting. I’ve learned that social networking has become a convenient way to live and has become just apart of out regular routine. There aren’t many college students who come home, and don’t check their Facebook. Our generation is very trusting and ready to take the plunge into disclosing information. I feel that with this learned knowledge, we should embrace social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, however, be conscious of the repercussions of them if not used wisely.