Parker 1

Kelsi Parker
English 2010
James K. Beatty
April 15, 2014
Position Paper
Social media sites from MySpace to Facebook has become a big part in peoples lives
today where people post pictures and comments. Facebook for a lot of people is the first thing
that they check in the morning and the last thing at night. 28 percent of 18-34 year olds check
Facebook when they wake up.(Facebook Statistics) Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg
and was originally called Facemash which allowed students to vote who was hotter. Although
Facebook is not the same as it was back then it still serves as a place to compare one person to
another person.
Social media it allows us to keep in touch but it also allows others to view private
information. Most of the people us who use Facebook use it with good intentions in mind but
some do not have good intentions. There are 1,310,000,000 billion active Facebook users and
out of that amount there are 81,000,000 million fake profiles. (Facebook Statistics)( Meaning
that we all should be careful about what we put on Facebook, including not putting an address,
and not putting where you work at.) Some people may ask why it matters if my address is on
Facebook or my work address. My reasoning for not having either of these on Facebook is
because it goes from knowing about someone online to knowing how to get to that person in
real life. If someone ever wanted to stalk you with and that information readily available for
anyone to see, it wouldnt be hard to locate you.
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I am not suggesting that Facebook is bad; in fact I go onto the social media site
numerous times a day. What I am saying is that in order to stay safe on Facebook we all need to
be cautious to what we put on any social media site. Dont post when youre going to be away
on vacation on social media sites, this is a big reason for robbery when people are away. For
example at my Grandfathers funeral we had a couple of our neighbors stay at the house and
watch it to make sure we didnt get robbed. I didnt know that was even an issue, but it would
make sense to rob a house where it is publicly advertised (obituaries) that you are away from
your home at that time.
The privacy settings are there for a reason, use them and limit the settings so only
friends and family have access to your posts and pictures. is able to view your posts as well as
pictures. Realize that when you put it on Facebook that you cant take what you said back. I put
on Facebook my phone number for a friend of mine to see. Instead I got numerous phone calls
and texts messages with explicit content to the point where I was forced to change my phone
number. I learned that day how important the personal settings are on Facebook, and I
changed it right away and deleted the post. But sadly the damage was already done and I had
paid for the consequences. I had an issue with a few of my friends a month ago where they had
said something very rude on Facebook then later deleted it. Someone had made screen shots
the post and showed anyone who would be affected by what my friend had said.
Use common sense about what you put on Facebook or any other social media site,
because when jobs are hiring potential employees they look at that persons Facebook to see
the kind of person they are and if they will be a good fit. With some jobs you have the ability to
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connect Facebook to your application for that company. The majority of Facebook users
perceive benefits of online social networking as outweighing risks of disclosing personal
information. The users seem to be unaware of the use of their private data, their searches in
browsers, products they acquire or links they visit. This information is stored and used without
any consent or knowledge. As we examine, Facebook technology for Information Monitoring is
specifically invasive in this field. Its architecture contributes to the reduction of users control of
their privacy though some settings and measures such as privacy policy changes, collecting
tendencies on consumption, the use of private data, a new Face Recognition feature and
revealing the users confidence. (Tello 3) What Tello is saying is that when we use Facebook the
good in it outweighs the bad, but the information we put into browsers is stored without our
permission. With Facebook it has a Face Recognition feature that tells who the user is and there
by revealing their identity.
Teenagers are the most at risk for negative effects of Facebook, with cyber bullying,
theft, and false sense of privacy. No longer is bullying and rumors spread by hand written notes
passed in class or during lunch or recess. They are spread for the whole world to see via sites
like Facebook and Twitter. Parents, teachers, and even teenagers are unaware of how much
cyber bullying happens. For example, there was a story of a girl where some boys had posted
pictures of her naked on Facebook and she was unaware of it until she kept receiving messages
about how slutty she was or kids telling her to kill herself. She later got sick of the comments
and committed suicide. Cyber bullying happens more than parents, teachers and even
teenagers are aware of. Some may not take certain comments or posts as a form of bullying but
many of them can be considered as such.
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Facebook does have its positive qualities about it as well such as connecting to relatives
that live in another country or friends in another state. Social Media can be used in a positive
way to help raise money for those in need and has been used as a very effective tool for
teachers in colleges to have the students connect and get information. Many people use
Facebook or some other type of social media site on a daily basis 640,000,000 is how many
minutes are spent on Facebook a month. (Facebook Statistics) Facebook is an amazing tool for
connecting as long as we connect and take precautions about it. Many children lie about their
age to get on Facebook. Consumer Reports magazine found that more than 7 million active
users of Facebook were under the minimum required age of 13; over 5 million were 10 or
younger.
For children who are 13 to 18, parents should be aware of who their kids are talking to
on Facebook and who they are friends with. AlAso families should talk to their Also talk to your
kids about being safe and privacy settings on Facebook. that whatever they post they cant
take back even if they delete it there are still ways to access that information. Make sure the
settings for privacy on their Facebook is only accessible to friends only, otherwise anyone
anywhere can see their personal information. Changing the settings is the easy part, the hard
part is getting your children to agree to you accessing their Facebook. Explain to them that it is
for their safety and protection. Most importantly just talk with your children about the good
and bad things of Facebook.
Recent studies suggest that many learners are increasingly turning to information and
communication technologies as learning tools outside of school. (Erjavec 118) Teachers can use
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Facebook as a positive tool for teenagers with supervision. I remember something awhile back
in a news report about how College professors were using Facebook as a way of connecting an
online class together to talk about the class. That being said in Elementary schools all the way
up to High schools should not have Facebook accessible to children. While some district
leaders have banned the use of social networking sites altogether because of fears over
inappropriate use and/or goofing off among students, others are puzzling over what to do
about the brave new world of social media, and weighing its potential use by students and
teachers inside and outside of the classroom.(SCHACHTER)
Facebook can be used for good and bad things, but we all need to take precautions to
ensure that the information that we put on Facebook or any other social media sites wont
affect our lives negatively. Think before you type something, although it sounds good now it
could have repercussions later on. Be safe with which your friends are, if you havent met them
in real life dont have them as a Facebook friend. What you put on your wall today could change
someone elses life so think before you type.






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Works Cited
1. Tello, Luca. "Intimacy And Extimacy In Social Networks. Ethical Boundaries Of Facebook."
Comunicar 21.41 (2013): 205-213. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Mar. 2014
2. Erjavec, Karmen. "Informal Learning Through Facebook Among Slovenian Pupils." Comunicar 21.41
(2013): 117-126. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
3. SCHACHTER, RON. "THE SOCIAL MEDIA Dilemma." District Administration 47.7 (2011): 27-33.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 3 Mar. 2014.
4. STROM, PARIS, and ROBERT STROM. "Growing Up With Social Networks And Online
Communities." Education Digest 78.1 (2012): 48-51. Academic Search Premier. Web. 3 Mar.
2014.
5. Facebook Statistics Statistic Brain.Statistic Brain Research Institute.(2013).Statistic Brain.
Web. 1 Jan. 2014.http://www.statisticbrain.com/facebook-statistics