Social Media – The Good, The Bad and the 'Not-So-Private'

1. Are you a member of a social networking website?  Why or why not?

Yes, I am a member of a social networking website because:
1) I want to stay in contact with my old friends especially the ones whom I probably won't see ever again or for a long period of time.
2) I want to be able to chat with people and/or webcam them. 
3) My parents and I want to see pictures and updates of my relatives in the Philippines.
4) I want to see pictures, updates and doings of famous people.

2. Have you checked your privacy settings lately?  Who can see the information that you put out there?

The minute after I watched the "Amazing mind reader reveals his 'gift'", I checked my privacy settings.
On Facebook only the people I accepted as friends can see my information.
On Twitter, everyone can see my tweets. (I don't post personal info about myself though!)

3. What kind of information are you allowing others to have access to?  Have you thought about this before?

I don't post an personal information like my home address, phone number or stuff like that.
The only information I post, on Facebook, for my friends to see, are my high school, gender and my birthday; nothing super personal.
I used to have an 'About Me' description but I deleted it years ago.

4. What kinds of things are safe to post?  Unsafe?  List some unsafe information that you should keep to yourself and not allow others to see online.

Some safe things to post on social networking sites are:

• Safe vacation pictures 
• Compliments to people people
• Certain life achievements
• Safe pictures

Any harmless, non-private information is safe to post.

Some unsafe things to post on social networking sites are:

• Inappropriate pictures
• Negative comments about people
• Your home address, city, town
• Your home phone number, cell phone number
• Your passwords 
• Your financial numbers like credit card numbers

Any private information about yourself must not be shared online.   

5. How can we become more responsible users of social network websites?  Why is this so important?

We can be more responsible of social networking sites by protecting ourselves and not letting strangers see information about us. Social networking sites need to be a safe environment for everyone using it. Beware of strangers trying to communicate with you and asking for any personal information because you do not know them. Just ignore them. Don't even talk to them. By signing up in a social network website, what we post there, will stay there, even if we delete it because someone might have saved the picture to their computer, so beware of that also. This is very important because it regards our safety. The less information out there, the safer we are.