CyberSpace Fool

One thing is quite clear. My Co-Director is a far wiser person than I - at least when it comes to technology. I should have followed her lead and stayed away from involvement with online "social networking." Indeed, what was I thinking?!

As directed, I read the "Explore Social Networks" page and clicked on the links provided. Fool that I am, I thought that joining Facebook would give me an opportunity to explore how it works and that once I'd learned what it was all about, I could unjoin and that would be that. Like many other Facebook users, I had no idea that "Deactivate Account" means just that - deactivate, not delete. The information stays in the "system" forever.

Only when I moved into "Thing 11" did I realize my stupidity and naivete. At that point I read the Wikipedia article and, more importantly, many of the articles it directed me to. I spent more than two hours with this and came away, once again, with the conclusion that my gut concerns about yet another new technology, while perhaps ill-informed, were actually pretty spot on.

I read about censorship of these sites by those who run them; about misuse of the sites by all sorts of people, from individuals to universities to employers to the government, for all sort of reasons; about the distraction these sites, as well as email and blogs, become in the classroom when students use their computers to, ostensibly, "take notes;" about the ease with which information can be moved through cypberspace, with or without the knowledge or permission of the person who first ut it there; and I read much, much more.

Two statements, from all my reading, stick out. "The reality is that most students do not realize how public and permanent their data truly is." And "Information transmitted over the internet is inherently vulnerable, whether one is a sophisticated hacker or simply a layman with access to a web browser." This so-called "social networking" is treated, almost, as a fun child's game. But clearly the consequences can be deadly serious, unintended, and unforeseen.

I cannot help but believe that real networking with real people who can be both knowable and held accountable is much to be preferred. Just the fact that some of us suggested we develop bogus accounts for this assignment should sound warning bells. I watch kids in the library "communicate" through MySpace or Facebook. I hear them say to a friend, "Oh, I told him I was twenty-one." I listen to them describe the people they've "met" and the possibility of connecting with them in real life. I discover they've failed even to log out of their accounts, leaving them and their real friends vulnerable to the next person to use that computer. And it sickens me.

I am so glad that when I signed up for my now deactivated Facebook account, I did so with a "new" email address that I will use for no other purpose, and I provided almost no information at all.

As for library MySpace or Facebook accounts - if it works for them... But in our village I'd rather meet people at the Post Office or Town Meeting or the dump or a village concert or... We might even develop a real relationship!