When
I was younger, I remember having to memorize my friend’s phone numbers in order
to call them to see if they could hang out for the day. Now, all I have to do
is take out my cell phone, shoot out a text or post a status on my Facebook
page saying, “I’m bored at—Saloon—come drink with me!” And then I think to
myself… great, well let’s see how many creepers come out to play tonight.
“Facebook stalking” has become a socially acceptable phenomenon, more like a
socially acceptable blunder. As stated by NCgirl59 on urbandictionary.com,
The act of monitoring another person's activity (status updates, photo uploads,
photo tags, photo comments, wall posts, friend additions, group
memberships, attended events, mutual friends, e.t.c.) on the popular social
network of Facebook.
Person
A: I was Facebook stalking Jennifer for two hours last night.
Person
B: Oh really?
Person
A: Yeah, Amber added photos from her birthday party and
Jennifer was tagged in one of them. However two weeks ago
Jennifer RSVPed 'attending' on the guest list for Jack's birthday
party which was the same night as Amber's. Then she updated
her status to: "Jennifer is going on a date tonight" but according
to her relationship status, she's not single!
So
this leaves me at the Saloon, waiting for friends, and I end up getting people
who I’m pity-friends with who happen to have been Facebook stalking me at the
time I put up that status. What a shame. (I would never actually use FourSquare
or Places, to “check into” places for my own personal safety reasons, but never
the less the point still stands; I’m still stuck at the Saloon with unwanted
people.) Due to the social norm of Facebook stalking, I would solidly like to
say “F you” to whoever invented the FourSquare and Places apps. Not only have
those apps added to the social networking stalking that is occurring, it also
opens up various windows to illicit and illegal activities. As stated by Anna
Brundage in her September article in The Quinnipac Chronicle, “I do not want everyone to know where I am. If I feel it is important
enough for someone to know where I am, I will tell them” and I rather tend to
agree.
Anna
Brundage then goes on in the same article to state her, rather similar to my,
opinion of the options to subscribe to Facebook friends and groups. It is a tad
bit too much. Having someone receive a SMS message every time I post a status
not only creeps me out, I think it is a completely unnecessary and rather
dangerous integrated part of Facebook. With statuses being posted by myself and
my friends on Facebook who use and have enabled the location setting for posts
on their Facebooks, the last thing I want is for someone who I don’t really
want to know that much about me to be seeing if they can develop a pattern of
my behavior via Facebook posts by myself or my friends. The last thing I would
ever want is for people to be able to do that to myself or any of my friends,
between past experiences of my own, I really do not want anyone at all to see
where I am several times per week and see my behavioral patterns.
More
over, if Facebook stalking is “bad” and can enable those who are doing the
Facebook stalking to see behavioral patterns of the people who are the targets
of such activities, imagine this…a breakup notification application. Guess
what? It already exists. It is the brain child of Beverly Hills-based software programmer Dan Loewenherz, originally
developed as a joke. This is a prime example of a joke turned potentially
harmful and dangerous app available to all on Facebook. Upon its introduction
to the world wide web via Facebook, it found seekers of such an application as
far as India, and over 100,000 seekers within the first twenty four hours of
its release. So, realistically that’s 100,000 people looking, and keeping tabs
on at least 100,000 other individuals, and up to 700,000 just within the first
twenty four hours that the application was released to the public. Initially a
joke, now a world wide stalking tool. What a shame.
So
I leave you with a final pondered thought of mine; is Facebook a social
networking site, or a social stalking site? You can keep in touch with far away
relatives, and friends. You can keep up with friends near by. You can see what
your room mates are up to. You can see who’s dating whom. You can keep tabs on
the people you’re trying to hang out with. You can perpetually watch the
Facebook pages of people who you’d like to. You can see where they go. You can
see what they do. You can see everything they let you see. So I, again, leave
you with a final pondered thought of mine…is Facebook a social networking site,
or a social stalking site?
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