Another week, another social networking incident
Well the judgement was finalised this week against the perpetrator, but the actual event happened in August last year. A man who was separated from his wife, killed her in cold blood at her parent’s home after discovering her Facebook status had changed to “Single”. I’m not a heavy user of Facebook or any other social networking website, but I do not put any of my personal details online such as name, age, date of birth etc because of my concern for identity theft and well, because of incidents like this. Not that I am suggesting someone is stalking me right now outside my house, peering through shrubbery to watch my every move or whether I need to be worried if I wanted to pop out to buy a tin of baked beans. But there are some nutters out there and I for one would like to minimise the likelihood of encountering one. Unfortunately, in this case, possibilities like this ended with tragic circumstances. Who would have thought the use of Facebook would quite literally end one’s life, however indirectly.
The problem is, I find that people take internet socialising all too seriously and they are too open about one’s life. There have been incidents whereby a partner would find out their soul mate is having it away with their best friend, by discovering lewd comments on wall posts. I find the relaxed view of exposing one’s identity and revealing information about themselves perplexing. After Facebook became wildly popular, a little test was carried out to see how people had little regard for their personal information. Around 41% of users were willing to share their information to a complete stranger, if they received a friend invitation from someone they didn’t know. Social networking is a good way to keep in touch with long lost friends, don’t get me wrong. But we need to be vigilant on how we are exposed.
More recently, a wife divorced her husband because of his relationship with another woman in the game Second Life. His avatar was having virtual sex with a virtual prostitute, with, I can only assume, virtual private parts. For some, the defining line between fiction and reality is blurred. My boss jokingly said that my character in Warhammer Online maybe subjected to something similar. In my case, if an elf tried anything they would get a nasty surprise before they even get to take their kit off, most notably a quick death.
On a more serious note, the wealth of information floating around in cyberspace is overwhelming. Think about it, on Facebook you put your name, date of birth, where you live, pictures of yourself, hobbies, where you work, what school you went to, the list goes on. Now amalgamate all this information and you have a complete ID profile about a person at your fingertips. Just think about that the next time you sign up to an online social service.
Recent Comments