Unlike most of the people my age, I do not use social networking very frequently. I have a Facebook account but I do not check it as often as most people. I check it once every day or so and when I log in I do not spend very much time on it. I don’t really post pictures of myself or go through albums and make sure that I am tagged if I appear in the picture. Mostly I use Facebook for the private groups that my friends created so that we can share information and stuff on the internet privately. I actually use Twitter more than I use Facebook. I do not post myself but I do have an account so that I can follow people who interest me such as software developers and comedians. There are lots of good Twitter apps for Android so I am able to see their updates as often as I want. I check them two or three times a day when I have downtime. I have never used Foursquare before and I don’t think that I ever would. The idea of Foursquare just seems creepy to me. I have no idea why I would want to post my location in a public place. When I want people like my friends to know where I am I will just text them so they can meet up with me. I feel like posting your current location on the internet is just asking for your house to get robbed or to be stalked or something. Plus, I don’t want people to always go meet up with me at places. I sometimes want to be left alone. I do use my phone very often for texting my friends. I text more than I place messages on people’s public Facebook wall. I like the immediacy of text messages, and usually if I want to post something like a YouTube video on a friend’s wall I would rather just show them in person. I also like to use my phone for things like Google Reader to read the latest news at my convenience.
I think that the cultural trend of moving to social networking can be positive or negative depending on the person. Some people are too young or stupid to understand the problems that the public nature of social networking can bring. One of my brother’s friends, who is a Sophomore in High School, will always post really vulgar and inappropriate things on his Facebook wall and his friend’s walls. I am not offended by his actions but I know that in the future he could come to regret these decisions. I didn’t have a Facebook as a Sophomore in High School but I feel like if I did I would be smarter about it. I make sure that my Facebook wall is clean an inoffensive so that it does not prevent me from opportunities, such as jobs. I am not the type of person who wants everything I am thinking in a public environment, I am more of a private person. I worry about the privacy of social networking site. I have locked my Facebook account down as much as possible in hopes that it will help with privacy issues. Social networks can be beneficial for some people. I can imagine that when I graduate from college I will use Facebook more to stay in contact with my friends. When my friends move away from each other all over the country Facebook will be a great way to stay in contact. Until then, I prefer physically hanging out.
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