Reunions with those only-kind-of friends from high school are awkward. You get stuck in the verbal dance of “That’s good”s and “What have you been up to?”s. The conversation then gets downright creepy when before you even say what you’ve been doing the past few years, they already know.
The long-lost acquaintance answers your puzzled expression with, “Oh, I Facebook stalked you,” followed by a giggle that doesn’t fit the situation.
“Facebook stalk” is practically an everyday phrase among my friends. But recently it occurred to me: well, it’s really not that funny. Predators and criminals can access photos and as much information as you provide, so it’s important to keep tabs on your Facebook profile.
Internet safety expert Linda Criddle has found college is a critical time to be circumspect with the information put on these sites.
“The reason it is so important for college students to protect themselves online is that online records8212;ones they create as well as ones created by others8212;will impact the rest of their lives,” Criddle said.
That might mean not being offered a job because a potential employer was less than impressed with the picture your buddy posted of you taken when you’d both had, oh, seven too many beers. It could also mean a destroyed credit rating.
Criddle said most people are only using one weak password. Once a criminal snags that, they have free reign over your credit.
Scared yet? It gets worse. Identities are “most frequently stolen from people between the ages of 17 and 27,” Criddle said.
The college age-group is an ideal target “because you haven’t yet messed up your credit and you aren’t monitoring your credit reports,” Criddle said. “Failing to check is playing roulette with your financial future.”
It would be bad enough to be responsible for your own demise, imagine how frustrating it would be if it was your friend’s fault for posting too-personal information about you. Fortunately, that can be remedied by asking your friends to keep the phone numbers, addresses and posts about you all leaving for the weekend off the Web.
Being “Facebook stalked” is very real. It’s taken a while, but I’ve finally realized how exposed my Facebook profile left me, and how much I would rather not know about other people, too. For example, my sisters-in-law were disappointed in me due to some pictures of an inside joke. I even found out through a feed on Facebook that my boyfriend of four years got engaged to someone he’d only known for a couple of months.
On second thought, it was good to find that out.
Anne Roper