Source: Mike Baird, FlickrFacebook is an innovative idea that focuses on serving the interests of people online. It builds a massive community for the people to interact with their friends and family to share their interests and activities. However, along with the great benefits offered by this service, there are also certain risks attached to the standardization of this social networking, such as privacy and racial issues. There have been a lot of cases about people or companies posting controversial images or comments on the Internet, leading to outrage among religious groups or political parties.
Berkman and Shumway (2003) mention that "those who seek to wear the mantle of information provider for their society...must be particularly attuned to the ethical dimension of their choices and decisions". We should be careful on what we post on the Internet - and particularly social networking sites as it may prove offensive to other people who see it. The Internet may prove to be an invaluable tool for information, but it may work against people as well. In this era where everyone uses Yahoo or Google to look a person up, think about your online activities and how they may affect what people. Past activities over the years, including posts on social forums may even show up on search engine results. People, it's called the World Wide Web for a reason!References:
- Berkman, RI, Shumway, CA 2003, Digital dilemmas, 1st edn, viewed 16 June 2009, http://books.google.com/books?id=ZYxi34Yw8-QC&client=firefox-a
- Matyszczyk, C 2009, GOP activist uses Facebook to compare first lady to gorilla, Technically Incorrect, CNET news, viewed 16 June 2009, http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10264440-71.html?tag=mncol;title
I think that Facebook is not wrong, the error is on the user.
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