OH FACEBOOK!!

The internet is a large network that has grown in the past years and will continue growing in years to come. Throughout the semester we have discussed many things pertaining to the internet but the last couple of weeks have become particularly interesting to me. Whether we were talking about Lambda Moos, Second Life, Facebook, of griefing I have taken an interest in each and every topic focused on. For this week we had a couple different readings pertaining to different topics that all had one thing in common, the internet.

Facebook, a word that was very new to me and many three and a half years ago, but when mentioned now it’s difficult to find anyone not know what you’re referring to. We talked mainly about facebook and even got a chance to check out our teacher’s facebook profile. Though to us facebook is more of a college student website, we clearly found out the type of network it has become. In one article we discussed how people were feeling violated by facebook and demanded a change. A petition was formed and passed around through bloggers demanding privacy settings to be changed. “Not surprisingly, the company was forced to adjust,” quoted one article. Though this change was made some still feel that facebook is not as private as it should be. The social network of facebook shows how strong the internet is today in 2008. For people to become outraged, demand a change, and receive a change all through the internet shows how important and how much of an influence the World Wide Web really has on society.

The articles also discussed through this week also explained how employers are actually surfing the web, including checking facebook and myspace pages to view future employees. Pictures, wall posts, and comments are all monitored and sometimes included in the decision making process when hiring future staff. As discussed in one article, a student teacher, age 25, was dismissed from her student teaching job due to a picture on her myspace page. There also was a student in class who told us that one of her friends received a job for next year, and two weeks after getting it she was told that she no longer had the position due to facebook pictures. No one really knows what employers are looking for and what they approve of and disprove of therefore it is difficult to know when one is crossing the line or not. All the subjects discussed in class give a better understanding to where the internet is today and its positives and negatives.