OUR CHANGING SOCIETY...ESSAY

       The use of social networking sites has increased tremendously over the past few years. Sites such as Facebook, Myspace, Friendster, and Hi5 allow users around the globe to create profiles to connect with friends, send messages, upload pictures of themselves, and form different identities. However as the popularity of these sites increases, so does the lack of privacy. The more involved we are within those digital networks, the more information we reveal about ourselves, which in turn makes us vulnerable to many criminal acts such as stalking, identity theft, and sexual harassment. These new innovations are having a remarkable impact on privacy.

      Two of the most famous social networking sites are Facebook and MySpace of which members have been classified by some scholars based on their socioeconomic status and different stereotypes. The users of Myspace are said to most likely be the outcasts of the dominant society whereas Facebook members are considered more educationally advanced and are in better economic standing. Danah Boyd writes

In her quote Boyd is simply restating all the stereotypes that has previously been made about the members of Facebook and Myspace. Facebook was primarily associated with college students with the intention of interacting with one another outside of campus, to share their common interests. Those were mostly from the middle class. Myspace on the other hand is believed to be more popular among those who according to Boyd never played “the dominant high school popularity paradigm”. Those less fortunate kids whose only choices are to get a job or join the armed forces after school were more likely to find a home within the Myspace network and find people who shared their common interests and that were in similar situations. However as Facebook opened its doors to different social groups who did not necessarily own a “.edu” account, more of the these “emos”, “art fags” , “gangtas” and others started to interact with those that we consider to be the ‘good’ kids. These interactions that take place online have caused a change in our values and among them is our definition of friendship.

       With the many technological developments, the world now works at a hasty pace. The United States for instance has become an ‘on the go’ nation and that has affected the way people interact with one another. Our definition of friendship is an example of the many significant changes made to our social values. Carol Stuart gives us a fundamental definition of what a ‘friend’ is or better said used to be.

                              A friend in my mind, is someone with common

                              interests, whom you spend time with, often sharing

                              common activities and discussing concerns of both

                              a serious and less serious nature. Friends know personal

                              information about you and are accepting of your flaws

                              and quirky behaviors (Carol Stuart).

In the old days a friendship was relatively a strong bond formed between two people who shared similar interests and activities or were members of a similar network such as school or the workplace. In order for such bond to form there had to be a certain level of trust between the two individuals. However with the emergent popularity of social networking sites that definition has somewhat changed. In her article Stuart states that in the past she was always reluctant of accepting her students as “friends” on Facebook because they simply did not fit her “friend” criteria. That certain level of understanding and acceptance of flaws was non-existent. Nowadays, the relationships formed online have also become a part of the ‘friends’ classification. “How do you know this person?” is the question asked on Facebook when a friend request is sent, and even though an actual relationship doesn’t exist “We are Facebook friends” is always an option. It is perhaps a way of making people more comfortable accepting and exposing their lives to complete strangers that on Facebook or Myspace can be considered “friends”. With these virtual relationships taking place one’s identity becomes less private.

         Although users might be concerned about privacy issues, many of them tend to overlook the terms of use and privacy policies of the above mentioned sites when registering for a new account. As shown in the video “Does what happens in the Facebook stays in the Facebook?” by vishal agarwala, the Facebook Privacy policy states

                                             “also collects information about

                                              you from other sources, such as

                                              Newspapers and instant messaging 
                                              services. This information is gathered

                                               regardless of your use of the web site” (vishal).

Even though a person was to use all the privacy restrictions and tools provided by the administrators of Facebook, they themselves are somehow invading every registered member’s privacy regardless if they use the website or not. They are collecting and storing information about different classes of people and passing them on to third parties such as major corporations that are trying to get to the public in order to sell their products. Aside from being a place where people can connect with old friends and form new relationships, SNS has become a place of market and advertisement. Even when we think we restrict our profiles deciding who we reveal our information to, these marketers and advertisers are always keeping an eye on us, to know when our credit cards are used and what type of products we purchase in order to reach out’ to our needs. In a way social networking sites have turned us into their consumers without our formal consent by using us as intermediary to make their profit.

          Alongside with the marketers, stalkers and sexual predators are the law enforcers for which the use of Myspace and Facebook are becoming more popular and effective for investigation purposes. Upon sending messages, posting comments, a person automatically grants Facebook permission to do whatever they please with that information and that includes sharing it with other parties such as the government.

                                   However, a week later the police received

                                   a tip that several students had posted pictures

                                   online of themselves and their friends celebrating

                                   on the field after the game. Using this information

                                   campus police identified and referred around fifty

                                   alleged offenders to the university’s office of juidicial

                                   affairs (Hodge).

 

Law enforcers are starting to use these Social networking sites as sources for their investigations. The Myspace and Facebook evolution has led the court officials to pass amendments in order to determine to what extent they should hold the information provided online as valid and reliable proof. Officials should also keep in mind that SNS allow users to invent identities. Many members tend to recreate themselves in order to portray a personality that is accepted upon the group in which they want to be a part of or ‘fit in’ and using profiles as an investigation tool can sometimes be misleading.

          The use of social networking sites has and is continuing to grow as the years go by. They are used by different age groups from different socioeconomic backgrounds. But as the use of these sites increase so does the lack of privacy. Although there are many privacy restrictions and policies offered by the different sites, upon registration a member naturally volunteers to give information about their identity which in the long run gets shared with third parties for different purposes including but no limited to criminal acts. The rapid growth of these social networking sites is also changing our culture in terms of our definitions of friends and what it means to have privacy.