Privacy and Social Networking

Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace are starting to play a significant role in modern day society.  From a psychological perspective, we can feel as though we are connected to both friends and random people while being completely alone.  I was diagnosed with anxiety and some part of me blames technology for acting as a shield I could use to ignore much of society.  Once I got to college and started going to large gatherings at night I found myself checking my phone nonstop in large crowds because in large crowds I would feel most alone.  While this disconnect may lead to a more impersonal society it also serves as a temporary outlet to our daily struggle.  Everytime I checked my phone even if I did not receive calls or texts I would feel more connected to my family and friends at home or in other places of the world.  This sense of connection is comforting and as mentioned before can act as a temporary outlet.  However, overusing facebook and cell-phones can lead to a disconnect with making “real” social interactions.  I think playing xbox 360 live has also added to my anxiety.  Once signed in on Xbox Live I am able to talk to thousands of people for free.  Honestly without even being ashamed to say, I can say I have developed and cemented some friendships in highschool over Xbox Live simply because I was bored at home willing to conversate and have a good time with complete strangers.  My use of xbox in high school may have affected my participation in after school sports and activities that could have taught me valuable social skills.

What really scares me is how corporations and bureaucracies are using social media and technology. In class we talked about how the U.S. government sends millions and millions of dollars to gaming manufacturers of first person shooter games and how the U.S. Army is using these games to recruit.  I personally find this very disturbing because I do not think actual military violence and violent first person shooter games should be linked together in any way.  If the U.S. government is sending money to violent first person shooter games our society will only keep continuing to become more violent and gun crimes will increase. 

What really annoys me however is when my family members talk and criticize what I put on my facebook.  In my opinion facebook and other social network sites should be more private.  In my highschool we had to be careful not to swear or put any pictures with alcohol or drugs online because we went to a catholic school who’s dean had a facebook.  While I do spend a lot of time on facebook I do think that these sites can be extremely beneficial to the spread of information.  The uprising in Egypt serves as a prime example to just how powerful these social networking sites may become.  I just hope that major corporations and the government do not abuse social sites as a means of accessing the public personal information.  This fear may already be a concern that society faces as more and more corporations are looking at sites like facebook and categorizing people according to the pictures and videos they choose to express themselves with.  I think I may actually create a fake boring facebook before applying to many important jobs because I’m afraid my current facebook may lean to the radical “partier” side of things.  Hopefully my career will not involve using the program second life and sitting in virtual meetings but it very well could happen.