The Generation Facebook Opinion Piece

In today’s age, the internet is becoming a vital part in how we communicate with each other and receive our information. The internet has also revolutionized the way that we obtain information. With all the advances that have been made with the internet and how the internet has been increasingly incorporated into our daily lives, it only makes sense that eventually a website would be created where people could socially interact without socially interacting.
Social networking sites, like facebook, allow people to add other people as their "friends" and essentially keep tabs on their daily lives. This is also the current trend with the internet today; it can increasingly be used to obtain information on people with a simple Google search. News organizations have done in depth reporting about the dangers of the internet and how there is an increasing amount of personal information available to anyone on the internet. That’s a scary thought.
There’s a lot of information on the web now. This can be both good and bad. For instance, thanks to the information available on the internet, my job is a lot easier. I can research facts and figures for my writing and even find contact information for people I need to get a hold of when I can’t find information I need online. I can also research mortgage rates on numerous websites and not have to rely on what a banker tells me. I have ways of gathering and corroborating information that 20 years ago people either couldn’t access or it would take way too long to obtain. The internet has made research incredibly easy to obtain.
The downside of the new age of information is that our government is not taking a responsible approach to regulating all the information that is available online. People are exploiting the wealth of information available on the internet to aid them in stalking their victims or identity theft. The internet is a very useful invention, but just like most other inventions, without any type of restraint or regulation from the government, it will be abused.
This leads me back to social networking sites. I have used facebook as a networking site for many years (well, since it was first available at my university). To be honest, facebook has made it increasingly easy for me to keep in contact with some of my closest friends and at the same time share in the joy of their lives when they post pictures of (1) new homes, (2) weddings, (3) their children, etc.
However, I think it’s important for parents to know about the social dangers of facebook (unless of course 20/20 beat me to it). Facebook, when it was first created, was intended only for the college-age crowd (to sign up you had to have a college/university email account). Eventually they expanded facebook for high school students and eventually adults. Pay special attention to that last sentence; they opened up facebook to both adults and high school students. Facebook opened its doors and let everyone in. Facebook’s selectivity was what made it, in my opinion, the superior networking site because it was unavailable to sex offenders (unless they had a valid email account). Some of you may have heard reports that facebook’s main competitor, Myspace, recently removed 90,000 sex offenders from membership. Can you imagine 90,000 sex offenders being able to access the profile, personal information, pictures of your teenage son or daughter? I certainly can’t.
For me, facebook was a great invention that allows me to stay in touch with my closest friends. But at the same time, this invention has been exploited by some at the detriment of others. I highly recommend that any parent out there that reads this column create their own facebook account and add their children so they can monitor their online activity (even the idea that a parent is online and can see their profile may be enough to keep your child from posting certain material). Talk with your children and inform them of the dangers of posting too much information in a public forum. Just watching MSNBC’s "To Catch a Predator" should be enough motivation for children to limit their online information and activity.
Lastly, this is just a small entry regarding the dangers of facebook and other social networking sites. I know that parents need to know more about facebook, but one column about the subject matter is not enough. I do not consider myself a facebook expect, but I do know a thing or two about the website and the history of social networking. I have previously tinkered around with the idea of writing a book and for that reason uploaded an extensive "chapter" about facebook on my blog found at http://patricklawson.blogspot.com/. I should warn you that the entry is relatively unedited and still rough. It can be found in the archives from November of 2008 under the same name as this column. This may give parents a little more insight into facebook and other social networking sites.