By Amy Balagna Posted June 3, 2009
What is Twitter? It’s mindless thoughts published on the web via cellular phone.
What is MySpace? It’s where people spend hours checking for updates and taking pictures of themselves in their bathrooms.
Facebook? Same thing for college kids… Why is our generation so entranced by social networking websites? Why do we feel the need to constantly publish our mood next to an angry-looking smiley face?
Some find it fascinating that young Americans feel the need to constantly document their lives on the internet. We have lost all sense of privacy. Today’s generation of children is growing up in a world ripe with the fruit of technology, and we have found various ways to utilize it, such as texting no more than 140 characters to Twitter who then posts our “Tweets” or mini-blogs to the internet for some distant person to read.
The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, can be called with no stretch a genius. His social networking website was at first restricted to his own college campus but has now grown to over 200 million users around the globe. No doubt impressive, this success truly speaks to the theory of transparency among American youth.
We feel the need to let everyone in the world know, at some times, our most private secrets. This new sense of openness characterizes our generation like the love and drugs of the ’60s or the patriotism of a wartime era. Maybe in growing up with the internet we have lost all sense of fear associated with it or maybe our natural youthful mindset of being untouchable is still present.
Nevertheless, we all must be careful how much of ourselves we expose to the internet, to Twitter, MySpace, or Facebook. The internet is a dangerous place. Don’t forget that. Just because you read a post on the internet doesn’t mean you can trust it, there are fake profiles, predators, and hurtful, dangerous bloggers around every corner. I’m going to sound like your mother, but be careful and don’t post any private information including your address and phone number to the internet.
