The social media world is growing and changing constantly and we need to be aware of what we, and others, are doing and saying in terms of personal safety and reputation.
The on-line nature of social media makes it far to easy to share everything you might tell a close friend at a cocktail party, without realizing the implications of what you are doing...that the world can now see.
Myrl did an excellent job of cautioning us to be careful when being social with friends, and others. This is well worth a read, adn taking to heart.
What are YOU doing that you shouldn't?!
Late last evening, I received notice from my 20 year old grandson that he had allowed his Nana (me) to be his "friend" on Facebook. I considered it an honor, since he hadn't allowed his mother to be.
However, I was horrified to see the amount of information he was dishing out on his page.
Granted, we are given the option of choosing our friends on Facebook. And we have some control over which entities will have access to our more personal aspects in cyber space.
However, things can change among friends, and we don't always know well some of those folks we accept as "friends."
Imagine my horror when I saw my grandkid's full birthdate, and place of birth on his profile page. I immediately emailed, to warn him of potential dangers lurking.
Here are some things you should consider if you are using social media including Facebook, Twitter, etc.,
(1) It's probably ok, to provide the month and day you were born. However, providing the year you were born gives identity thieves a piece of key information for stealing your financial life. Couple that with the knowledge of your place of birth, and sometimes identity thieves can predict some of the numbers in your Social Security number, if not most or all.
(2) Be wary of providing your home address. Ponemon Institute recently conducted a study, which found that Social Media users were at risk of identity theft because of information they were providing on their social sites. Others were actually putting themselves at physical risk. The study found that most contacts that had been accepted as "friends" were actually just acquaintances or people they knew - some only slightly.(3) If you want to talk or brag about your vacation or trips, wait until you return home. Telling the world that you're going to be gone for 2 weeks cruising the Bahamas, or wherever, is telling thieves, "Come rob me."
(4) Passwords are another area that needs serious consideration. If you use the same password for just about every on-line activity you perform, you are at risk. If you are using your mother's maiden name, or other predictable criteria, you're making it easy for crooks to guess your passwords.
(5) And, suggesting that passwords have 8 characters including a capital, doesn't mean you should choose, "sneezy - sleepy - dopey - doc - happy - bashful - grumpy - and sacramento" either. Only we blondes are allowed to do that:-)
(6) One of the more important things to consider is what you decide to put out in cyberland, has the potential of being looked at by future or current employers, school admissions people, and other entities that may not think it is funny, that you love to party down and get drunk every weekend, or recreationally smoke the "funny stuff."
If you use a few good sense precautions, you ought to remain reasonably safe, while exploiting the wonderful possibilities available through social networking. The key is to remain cautious and to use care.
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And of course you can always email directly or call on the phone those folks who you would like to know better, or who ask you questions on-line or send emails. i'm sure you can thnk of more ways to engage.
THERE ARE TOO MANY SOCIAL MEDIA SITES - every time I think I am on all the right ones, another one makes an appearance, and I feel obligated to join. My spreadsheet for tracking sites, log ins, and passwords is totally beyond control and impossible to maintain. And worse, I often get invited to join a new site by someone I don't even know. I have created more avatars and screen names and passwords than anyone in their right mind ought to be doing. I'm just not inventive and it takes too much blasted time.
THERE ARE MORE FRIGGIN' QUOTES out there from famous people than you can possibly keep track of, or even begin to ponder and hope they will make your measly life better, which of course they won't. And if I hear one more quick way to make a million dollars using Twitter in 1 hour I'm going to barf. No doubt I needed to share that and someone will have a video I can watch that will help me cure the nausea, which of course I will then have to retweet ad nauseum so others can DM me to congratulate my new-found success, and then I can write an e-book and become famous overnight and gain billions of followers. And start my own special fan club on Facebook.