Afternoon ritual: sit in front of laptop, check e-mail, log onto Facebook, snap out of its spell (45 minutes later) and wonder what happened to the time. Initially, I scoffed at the likes of Twitter, MySpace and Facebook. They seemed like a waste of time, energy and privacy, and they are.
Granted, social networks do offer us efficient, accessible ways of staying in touch and sharing content with others. Moreover, these user-friendly, profile-centered sites satisfy both our narcissist indulgences and our self-identity crises.
Nonetheless, the average user is no longer alone in his or her appreciation of these social media networks.
The U.S. Library of Congress, in fact, announced in April that they would begin to archive all public Tweets. In other words, researchers and government offices could potentially be privy to that song that was stuck in your head, your reactions to the recent Emmys, or your opinion on the recent Oval Office speech. Our status updates are likely to paint a colorful, intimate picture of American history and identity.
Yet the prospect that an academic or governmental microscope would seek some probative value in a Tweet does not make me LOL. Truly, IDK what to think.
My first thought is full-out, Armageddon-style social media conspiracy.
Everyone hopefully has wasted a good four minutes watching a Facebook conspiracy theory video. For those unfamiliar, it goes like this: Facebook is a plot by the U.S. government to get all of your personal information and use it against you.
Indeed, Facebook has donned creepy taglines, like, “What’s on your mind?” and “Write something about yourself”. Not to mention, we pour information online, like what events we’ll be attending, what our likes and dislikes are, our personal opinions, and pictures from our latest vacations. User sharing even includes content as intimate as phone numbers, e-mails and addresses.
Most importantly, all of this content belongs to Facebook. With more than 500 million active Facebook users, the extent of information the social network possesses is prodigious. Not to mention, with Facebook’s new “Places”, Mark Zuckerberg knows exactly where you are.
In other words, OMG – get off Facebook, apocalypse, freak out.
So maybe that is unlikely, but there is some evidence that governments already use Facebook to track people down.
There have been several reports of criminals being caught because of their Facebook statuses. One burglar even left his profile up on the computer of the individual he was stealing from. Another criminal, after escaping police, taunted them via his Facebook status updates. He was eventually caught as well. ROFL.
It’s not just the U.S. government that can check up on what you’ve been posting on Facebook. I recently stumbled upon a website I’d heard about months ago called youropenbook.org.
The site was created in the wake of this summer’s Facebook privacy fiasco and offers a live database of public statuses. It allows users to search any word and will automatically post the relevant statuses.
While searches for pop-culture topics like “Justin Beiber” or “Lost Finale” offers entertaining results ,and topics such as “getting married today” or “newborn” may melt your heart, a simple search for “e-mail address” or “new phone number” may rattle your sense of security and privacy.
AKA, be careful what you post. SRSLY.
Although it is unlikely that the IRS will like your next marketplace sale or that the executive branch will retweet your posts, we may all consider being a bit more careful with what we post. You never know who is watching you.
So the next time you click “share” or “tweet”, remember that not only will your now-Facebook-user grandma see the post, but your grandchildren or your senator may also take note of it.
TTYL. <3
Drew Konow is a senior religious studies, foreign languages and literatures triple major. He can be reached for comments or questions at [email protected].
