The Annoyance Over The Privacy Of Social Networking Sites

Cracked.com as a reliable news source? They use to have a magazine to compete with MAD Magazine.

Nevermind it does look true. Interesting that a joke and parody magazine is running legit articles.

Originally posted by Griffo
reply to post by lpowell0627

 

I know it is possible, but it really is an inconvenience. I never had a mobile phone until I was in year 7, which never bothered me then, but I had a friend who never got a mobile until he was 19! Trying to get a hold of him to see if he was coming out was a nightmare.

Please do not take my response personally, as I feel that you share the same opinion as many from your generation, but this is exactly indicative of how we have been programmed by the very companies that are now freely collecting and selling our personal information. The same companies that we say are infringing upon our personal right to privacy but continue to support despite this.

Do you see your outrage that someone didn't get a cell until 19? And you got one at 7? What does a seven year old have going on in his/her life that is so important that a cell phone is required? Did Barbie get dumped by Ken....did the GI Joe warriors go AWOL.....because these are the things that seven year olds should be concerned with in my opinion.

Further, was it really that difficult to get your friend to come out before his cell capability? Did it require you to drive to his/her house, knock on the door, and actually ask if he was home? Did this not allow his parents to actually see and talk to the very people he was spending his time with? Instead of an anonymous person on his personal phone that he was now driving "somewhere" to meet? Were you not able to acutally maintain this friendship despite his lack of a cell?

Trust me when I say, none of my schoolmates had cells, there was no such thing then, and we all maintained friends. We met at the park, we were home for dinner by 5. We rode bikes and had kids knock on our doors to see if we could play. It was a community and you behaved when you left your house because you knew it would get back to your parents if you didn't. There were bad apples, there always are, but everyone in town knew who they were.

But now, we, as a society, have been brainwashed to believe seven year olds deserve instant, everywhere access to discuss their daily lives. This is the very thing that creates selfish, self-absorbed generations in my opinion. And again, this is a general observation and not in anyway a personal attack against you. When you start receiving hundred dollar "toys" and begin invoking your right to privacy at seven.....what do you get as an adult? What is there left to "earn"? What happens next? Four-year olds with an iPod to listen to Wheels on the Bus? We create a bunch of kids, coming at us with their hands out constantly, and we wonder why these kids grow up and have their hand out wondering when "someone" is going to provide them "with what they are entitled to".

We need to go back to the times when children were just that, children. When parents had to tend to and play with their children and be the one to listen to their daily lives -- instead of allowing them to turn outside the family for such interaction. It's hardly rocket science to figure out that the more time our children, especially when they are young and impressionable, spend talking to others the less time they spend talking to siblings, parents, etc. This is not to say that children should be forbidden from having friends, but it's time we take back control and once again embrace common sense. The whole family values thing really isn't a bunch of bunk.

I remember being a kid...and the frustration of being tethered to a corded phone while talking to a friend and watching my parents come in and out of the room pretending not to listen. However, whether I knew it then or not, it provided boundaries and allowed my parents to hear what was going on in my life and be a part of it -- instead of looking at a closed door and wondering what I was typing on the Internet for all to see and whether I was talking to a friend or a potential foe. Yes, there is software that monitors their every move and every site they visit -- but this information then becomes available to you and the company that provides the service. Again, privacy just went out the window. Further, there are fifty ways to get around this software and kids learn that faster than they learn how to read.

Look, I am not trying to create some grandiose utopia where we all grab hands and sing in harmony. But we have substituted common sense for a desire for convenience and laziness. We have been convinced that we can not live or function without a constant GPS-enabled device strapped to our bodies everywhere we go. Then we complain that these companies, and the government if they are looking for us, can find us everywhere we go. Further, we spend our time griping about how much information they have on us and how our privacy is being eroded -- meanwhile, all we have to do is hit Power Off and the problem, largely, goes away.

We did all of this to ourselves. And we are the only ones that can demand it is no longer tolerated. Will it be more inconvenient? Sure. But what value do you place on your rights? So long as we continue to support all of this, it will continue to get worse.

reply to post by lpowell0627

Do you see your outrage that someone didn't get a cell until 19? And you got one at 7? What does a seven year old have going on in his/her life that is so important that a cell phone is required? Did Barbie get dumped by Ken....did the GI Joe warriors go AWOL.....because these are the things that seven year olds should be concerned with in my opinion.

No, year 7, which is about 11 or 12 years old.

Further, was it really that difficult to get your friend to come out before his cell capability? Did it require you to drive to his/her house, knock on the door, and actually ask if he was home? Did this not allow his parents to actually see and talk to the very people he was spending his time with? Instead of an anonymous person on his personal phone that he was now driving "somewhere" to meet? Were you not able to acutally maintain this friendship despite his lack of a cell?

Yes, he was never in his house most of the time, so it would have been easier to ring him.

Trust me when I say, none of my schoolmates had cells, there was no such thing then, and we all maintained friends. We met at the park, we were home for dinner by 5. We rode bikes and had kids knock on our doors to see if we could play. It was a community and you behaved when you left your house because you knew it would get back to your parents if you didn't. There were bad apples, there always are, but everyone in town knew who they were.

I used to be like that with a different set of mates, who lived on the same road as me. I'd walk up the road for 5 mins to see if they were in, if they weren't I'd walk back home. As I got older and went to secondary school, some of the friends I made there lived a lot further away so walking to there house to see if they were in wasn't an option anymore