With all the talk on this blog about Facebook and other social networking sites (see here, here, and here), here’s something that humorously encapsulates some of what unnerves many people about Facebook — particularly how social networking of this sort can make us vulnerable to unsavory characters of various sorts and what some people are afraid can be done with the information we typically make available on Facebook.
This is hilarious. I posted it on my facebook page.
Reply to Diana
I’ve seen this hysterical video before and it cracks me up every time…And I’ve definitely been weirded-out by how easy it is to start at a facebook page and end up in a few clicks looking at the flickr photos of a vacation your long-lost elementary school friend recently took. The fact that all (okay, most) of us are guilty of these small, voyeuristic voyages thanks to social networking sites definitely makes me fear for what could be found (and by whom!), especially when less savory motivations might lie be behind it. Sure, most of the time it’s not much more than a procrastination attempt by the surfer (the ‘X minutes of freedom’ post is right up my alley), but the vulnerability is real. A friend of mine wiped out her friendster account after a very distant acquaintance was continually “grabbing” all her photos…(for fun?)Speaking of which, has anyone here been facebooked, friendstered, or myspaced by a student before?
Reply to Hillary
I’ve twice had students invite me onto social networking sites (one was actually a south eastern dating site, and the other was Linkedin). I think it happened by accident through the email search feature. I just ignored it. It’s a good reason to make sure that the email you use for teaching is separate from the one you use for other purposes.
Reply to Diana