Before taking this class I didn't actually think about how often I was on Facebook, and I assumed that it was less then the average college student, but throughout the quarter I've noticed differently. Whenever I need to check anything on my phone such as the weather, news or email, I would always instinctively go to my Facebook app instead. I casually check facebook on my phone around 10-15 times a day, and that doesn't include the time I spend chatting with friends while on my laptop. The point is that we social network a lot throughout the day and facebook and twitter have become prevalent forms of communication in our generation. Why have a 35 comment length conversation with a friend on Facebook when it is quicker and more efficient to just text message that person? Social networking sites provide people with an audience of "friends" who can like your status or interrupt your conversations. As the documentary "We Live in Public" states, we all want more than just 15 minutes of fame, and social networking sites are our individual way to attain that fame.
The privacy issues associated with social networking sites are a concern for our generation. Anything we post on Facebook can be saved by any other individual and kept forever. You see universities and employers looking at possible students/employees' Facebook profiles and determining whether or not to accept them. Because of this I try not to put incriminating photos of myself online, and if a friend tags an inappropriate photo I immediately un-tag it. Intertwining our personal lives with technology is not all bad though. One is the like function on facebook, and other sites such as digg. I've used this to find news and entertainment that suits my likes (and save time at the same time since I do not have to look through all of the stuff I don't for). When I think about how companies can "buy my information" and personally advertise to me, I think that no one should have the right to my information without my consent, but that is one of the costs of living in public.
In my opinion this problem will not continue in the future when the digital divide has lessened. When the internet is more universal and more people have access to social networking sites, then everyone will live in public and most people will not even notice or care that his or her information is being distributed without his or her concern because everyone's life will be more convenient. Unless we fix the privacy issues associated with the sites we use on a daily basis (such as Facebook), we will be forced to live in public. For now it is best for people to educate themselves and find out how their information is being used online, and it is most important for people to be discrete when posting information about themselves.
