Facebook is not your Friend

Hello everybody, my name is Nick Barlotta and you can find me on twitter @barlottn.  This is the third week of my blog and I am starting to get the hang of it.  Last week I learned about a website that can track your location by tweets or posting on Instagram.  Its called "Ready or Not".  I found this website interesting and frightening at the same time.  My first thought was that it's awesome that it can show every location you tweeted or posted from.  Then I thought it's great for someone that wants to stalk you or find you.  I doubt theres anyone that wants to find me but this tool could become very problematic for people that owe money to someone or have a crazy stalker.  Those two situations are very real for some people out there but not most of us.  This is a great tool but in the wrong hands it can be used a weapon.  So consider putting putting your twitter and Instagram on private and turn off geotagging while your at it.

Do you remember when you could not save your bookmarks online so that you could access them from other computers?  You may but I don't because I'm not old enough to remember that.  A website called Del.icio.us.  It was founded by Joshua Schechter and this site introduced people to social bookmarking so that people could find great sites that had the information they wanted much easier.  Josh Schechters idea of social bookmarking paved the way for newer sites like symbalooedu, Diigo, and eduClipper.  Symbaloo is a page with bunch of tiles that can be made into your own personal page of your favorite websites.  Diigo is a site that first appears as a blank page which can be turned into a place where all your favorite sites are stored.  Educlipper is a similar site but its specifically used for educators to share information with colleagues and students easier.  All this information I shared with you in this paragraph can be found in Untangling the Web.

Facebook is a tool for people and friends to share photos and have conversations with each other but little do they know it's a great way for people to stalk you and steal information from you.  Your basically giving strangers personal information about yourself.  Facebook is also a breeding ground for cyberbullying and catfishing .  There are tons of fake profiles out there with pictures that are taken from other facebooks profiles or found online from other sites.   Facebook is also allowing marketers to look through your personal information to determine what adds they should market too you.  Be careful because Facebook might not be as safe as you thought it was. 

Before you make your next tweet or post on Instagram think about how it could make an impact on you in the future.  Employers are now checking Twitter and Instagram to see who you really are.  So drunken party pics are probably best kept off social media.  You don't want to scare away a potential employer just because you like to have fun in your spare time.  Keeping your Twitter and Instagram on private is probably a good idea.  And most important don't bash your employers and co-workers.  Keep it classy.  I hope you enjoyed my blog this week and don't worry there will be more next week.