Blogs & Social Media Sites

There is a lot of information to be found on the Internet.  A lot of it is available on regular web pages, but there is also an increasing number of blogs and social media sites where people post all sorts of information.

The word "blog" is short for "web log"; it is, basically, an online diary that is open to the public.  People generally create blogs to write down their thoughts and ideas, and generally to record their lives.  A blog entry is one specific piece of writing, a single post by the author.  Some blogs allow readers to post comments about each blog entry.

(There are also "vlogs," or video logs", where people record their thoughts using a video capture device and post the videos for people to see.)

Social media sites can include blogs, and some provide a lot of the same functions as blogs without calling themselves "blogs".  Sites like Facebook and MySpace allow people to post pictures and images to share with others.  Unlike most blogs, social media sites often allow their users to limit who is able to view a particular user's pages.  

With both of these texts, there are some serious issues to consider:

Privacy

There are two main privacy issues bloggers and social media users need to consider.  First is the fact that it's pretty easy for just about anyone in the world to be able to see the information posted on blogs and social media sites.  It can be dangerous for people to post information online, because unscrupulous people can take advantage of that information.  Some activities that people may not realize are putting them in harm's way include the following:

• Putting up pictures of yourself or others with the full names of the people in them

• Putting up pictures with school names in them (on sweatshirts or other clothing, in the background)

• Posting birthday information or ages

• Posting street or mailing addresses; even posting cities or towns can provide devious people with info you don't want them to have

• Posting phone numbers

• Posting info about school or extracurricular events

Additionally, many social media sites collect information about their users and sell it to third parties.  Who those third parties are is not always clear, and, again, it is easy for unscrupulous people to use that information against the original users.

Bullying

Bullying has become a major problem in the online world.  It is very easy for cowardly people to post cruel comments about others; the Internet allows people a large amount of anonymity, which many hide behind. 

Additionally, because users are not face-to-face, it is difficult to judge how someone is affected by comments, and easy to forget that the comments are being sent to people, not just posted on some emotionless web page.  Despite the old saying, names and comments do hurt others.

A good rule of thumb to help reduce bullying is to think before you post.  If you wouldn't say it to the person if they were standing in front of you, then you shouldn't post it. 

Bullying has become such a serious issue that there are now laws in many states, including New Jersey, which make it a crime to be an online bully.