Cyberstalking

Years ago, I don't think we would be doing all of the things we're capable of doing on the internet. By having a computer, or at least having access to one allows me to be in touch with so many people and keep me up to date with all that's going on. At the same time, some of the innovative things on the web is quite scary if you think about it. 

One thing that's frightening is the access that many people may have in our lives. Actually it's up to us to see how far someone would go with the information they learn about you on the internet. With social networking sites such as Myspace, Facebook, and Hi5, a profile is a glimpse into the lives of individuals. It may show their birthdays, hometowns, current cities,relationship status, occupations, political and religious views. Photos and videos are ways of observing each other and what may be our daily lives. Even when you go out to an event and you thought you didn't take pictures for the night, just check the next day to see if you've been "tagged" in any. We have to be extra careful when it comes to photos because you don't want to be caught in a compromising situation in anyplace. 

Twitter is another type of social network where you have a chance to share your opinions, events, ideas or whatever within 140 characters. At first, I wasn't a fan of Twitter because I felt it was a website just made for status updates, which it is. Now that I'm using it for my blog, I find it quite hilarious to read other friends' tweets. The one thing that scary about twitter is when you tweet from a mobile device. Depending on what type of twitter application you use, you're able to see the location of where a tweet was made. Plus, with the time available, you could pinpoint the location of somebody. I don't want others to know where I am. 

With pinpointing location by using Twitter, Google has been amazing with their map, especially their global maps. The other day I was playing around with Google Maps and I was able to see the buildings and smaller homes in St. Lucia, W.I. (where my family's from). I tried to do that a few years back and wasn't able to. Now you see the names of all of the streets and highways, which was pretty cool. Now, they took it to the next level with the street view of addresses. I could see the convenience with that especially if you're going to a place you've never been before, but it's scary if some random person found your address from somewhere and decide to look up the address. I'm not saying it happening, but I can't say it doesn't. 

With this world we live in full of technology and innovation, we have to be careful with the information we put out there. It's nice to be connected to others even though you may not be geographically close. At the same time, that may cause some dangers that we must be aware of. So, set your privacy settings and be careful.