The phenomenon that is social networking has enormous potential to be both beneficial and harmful. Usage of these social networks provides us with oceans of information readily available at our fingertips. Maintaining contact with distant friends and family has never been easier, as geographical barriers have been broken down by these technologies. We can even observe the advantages of social networks manifesting in the workplace. According to the Freakonomics article by Stephen J. Dubner, companies, such as IBM, have created their own internal social network in order to increase utility and cohesiveness across teams.
On the other hand, social networks also provide hackers and other bad actors with more resources to commit their mischievous acts. We are publicizing more and more of our personal information these days, making us more vulnerable to these kinds of attacks. As mentioned in the BBB article, scammers can use your information on Facebook to gain access to your profile and potentially do harm.
I believe that social networking will only become more intertwined with our everyday lives. As we have already seen, this transition will compromise the amount of privacy that we keep.
1. Is MySpace Good for Society? A Freakonomics Quorum by Stephen J. Dubner. NYT Feb 15, 2008 http://freakonomics.com/2008/02/15/is-myspace-good-for-society-a-freakonomics-quorum/
2. BBB: New Wave of Phishing Scams Uses Facebook Info for Personalized Spam. January, 28, 2013 http://www.cinewsnow.com/news/local/BBB-new-wave-of-phishing-scams-uses-Facebook-info-for-personalized-spam-188696411.html
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