Principlepr is writing a blog.
February 17th, 2009
I am sure many people would have heard about this story before, but I really can’t get my head around it. Not only is this an example of how stupid the guy writing the status was, but it is an example of the power that you give Facebook when you live your life completely through it. People can see where you are going, where you have been, how you are feeling and how drunk you were on Friday night. This guy – as his status makes clear – was not feeling like going into work as he was still recovering from partying to hard. So he put it on his status and his work caught him when he made a claim for sick leave. Unbelievable!
It doesn’t stop there though, I have ‘text’ the text information service 82ASK and asked what they can tell me about myself. They returned with information that I am from the West Midlands, probably attended South Bromsgrove High School and that I am recently 22 and interested in Birmingham City F.C. and dance music. Now, all of this information was sourced from my Facebook page that they can’t access, just by looking through my friends and things that I was a fan of. So if these people that don’t have access to my page can find out so much about me, I am half expecting the majority of my online friends to be able to compile either an in-depth social diary or a decent biography of my recent years!
A man was recently convicted of stabbing his wife to death for changing her relationship status on facebook to single. Further to this Virgin Airline workers have been reprimanded for calling passengers chavs and commenting on the poor safety standards if the airline on their facebooks.
In contemporary society, we need to be more aware and more careful than ever when living out our lives on the internet. Not only can anybody see certain information about you, but more importantly they can see how drunk you were on Friday.
Take it easy online and stay virtually safe.