Clearly, when Al Gore invented the internet he didn’t know what he was getting into. We’ve ushered in a new era, an era of instant information and communication with few warnings and even fewer boundries. The internet allows anyone to do what his ancestors could have only dreamed of, but at what cost? There is a dark side to the World Wide Web, and as kids grow less cautious the dangers become more pronounced. This new danger can most clearly be seen with social networking sites like Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter.
The premise of such sites seems innocent enough from the outside—they are, after all, designed to help users stay connected with friends and family—but users often forget that the sites are not private. Sure, one can make his profile private, but google searches can still unearth negative information. The problem with social networking sites is that teenagers are forgetting about caution and posting whatever they want about themselves with reckless abandon. From everything from their full names to their cell phone to “I was so drunk last night,” teenagers are taking information that should be private and presenting it to the entire world.
So, what is the point? Why do teenagers feel the need to confess every detail of their lives to potentially millions of people? Part of the urge may stem from the kind of society we live in. From our celebrity-obsessed culture to our drive to be noticed, we are an attention-addicted youth in an attention-starved society. It makes sense that someone would publish every detail of her life if she thought it would generate attention and make others care. Still, this does not make such behaviour prudent or wise. In fact, it’s dangerous—as proved by cases of assult and kidnappings traced back to Myspace or Facebook.
To be safe, students always need to think twice about the information posted on the internet. Some details, like a first name, are probably not an issue, but something personal like an address or a phone number could prove dangerous. Anything that allows strangers to trace the poster should be avoided. Teenagers should also be careful about posting pictures or stories that make them look bad: anything from personal stories to profanity can be accessed by a Google search. Basically, prudence is wise, and too little information is better than too little. The best advice I can give? If you wouldn’t want your mother reading it, you probably shouldn’t be posting it.
