The dos and don’ts of social networking
By Mariève Inoue – divine.ca
If you don’t yet have a profile on either idivine, MySpace, Friendster, Hi5, or the latest social networking phenomenon, Facebook, you may be one of the few, at least in North America.
What’s all the fuss about? Social networking sites allow you to create a profile to share with the world (or a few select people depending on your privacy settings). You can also join groups with people that have similar interests and, in the case of Facebook, re-connect with long-lost friends. Wondering what your best friend from kindergarten has been up to? She’s probably on Facebook—all you have to do is look her up and add her as a friend. Wonderful, isn’t it?
Of course, sharing information about yourself over the Internet always has its risks, and with Facebook, you’re asked to use your real first and last names—which means anyone can look you up and find your profile. This also means it’s a prime environment for fraud and identity theft. There have also been tales of potential employers searching Facebook for information on candidates that have applied for a position.
However, misfortunes can be kept to a minimum if you follow a few simple guidelines. To that end, we’ve put together a short list of dos and don’ts to help you manage your profile on social networking sites, specifically Facebook. Follow them and avoid over-exposing yourself to the world—and keep your risk of encountering related problems to a minimum.
*DO set the security settings of your profile to “Only my friends”. This way, you’ll be able to control who has access to your information and pictures.
*DON’T include your phone numbers and mailing address, children’s or pets’ names in your profile. Try not to give people too much information—if they’re your friends in real life, then they already have your contact info, and shouldn’t have to resort to searching Facebook to find it. As for kids’ and pets’ names, people often use these as passwords, so it’s not recommended to publish them online.
*DON’T hesitate to “ignore” a friend request if you don’t actually know the person who sent it. You never know who they might be—a future employer? Someone trying to find out information on you or your friends? Make sure your network of online friends reflects your actual, non-virtual social network.
*DON’T put up pictures of yourself under the influence of any type of substance. This means: no dancing-on-the-bar-pictures, or candid shots of the last time you got hammered with your friends at happy hour. Once they’re on the web, you may no longer have control over who sees them—same goes for naked or semi-naked pics.
*DO monitor the pictures that other people put up of you and tag you on (“tag”: square around your face on a photo; displays your name and links to your profile). Don’t worry—there’s no need to browse all of your friends’ profiles daily to do this: just go to your profile page and click “View Photos of You” (right beneath your main profile pic). You’ll then see an index of photos of yourself that were added by you, as well as others your friends have tagged you on.
*DON’T hesitate to “untag” yourself from pictures you don’t approve of. See a picture you were tagged on that you’d rather not have show up in your photos? Simply click “remove tag” next to your name in the list of people in the picture. And if you really think the picture could put you in a compromising situation, ask whoever put it up to kindly remove it. Since the person is supposed to be your “friend”, they shouldn’t have a problem granting your request.
*DON’T post a compromising photo of your friend or—even worse—tag them on one. It’s only fair.
*DON’T join any groups that could put your job at risk. Everyone seems to be on Facebook nowadays: your network probably includes co-workers, which could make your profile easily accessible to people higher up in your company, maybe even your boss. Do you think he or she would appreciate seeing that you’ve joined the “Girls that hate their job” group, or better yet, one called “F*?$! MY BOSS...I HATE HIM”?! (And yes, these are actual Facebook groups).
*DON’T confuse Facebook with an online dating site. Although you may meet new people through friends, the site is built for connecting with people you actually know. Making your profile public so people can search for you means sharing your information with everyone, regardless of whether or not you know them—a risk we wouldn’t take. If love is what you’re looking for, try lavalife.ca or match.com.
Keep your profile safe, and have fun!
NB: This is meant as a guideline in order to make your Facebook experience a bit safer; use of any social networking site is at the user’s own risk.