Facebook: Friend Or Foe?

Over the past couple of years, social networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook have been gaining popularity. They are free, easy to join, and easy to message its members. Teenagers chat about everything from school, to sports, to what they were doing last night. It all seems like innocent fun, and it can be. But many teens are unaware there are hidden dangers of social networking sites.

Some say that Social Network Sites are going to be the next social phenomenon. Usually, we have to met a person to find out what they look like, what their interests are, or to just figure out what kind of person they are. But by using Social Networking Sites, such as Facebook, you can learn all about pretty much anyone just by going on the internet. The only fault of Social Networking Sites is that the information that you receive may not be true. Junith Donath says that “Alone, these are conventional signals, easily faked; even references to favorite obscure books and other displays of esoteric knowledge may have simply been copied from another's page” (Donath 2007). Some people could easily write down things to make them look better, or even cooler, in the eyes of other people.

Erving Goffman has similar ideas of putting out fake information. He says that when people first meet each other, they first put on an act in order to impress the other person, and make them want to be their friend. For example, a girl could send flowers to herself to make her seem more chased after by boys, or she could even create fake people on Social Networking Sites and make it look like she has a ton of friends. This would make her seem more popular, and therefore it would supposedly make her a more desirable person. As pathetic as it sounds, it does happen, and Social Networking sites do have a way to go before becoming a reliable way of getting to know a person. If it is easy for teenagers to create fake profiles, then it is just as easy for sexual predators to create fake profiles and trick young girls into thinking that they are cute young boys.

It is hard to keep people from posting false information on social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace. All someone needs to do is click edit and create their own little character. A 50 year old pedophile can easily turn into a hot sixteen year old guy at a click of a button on the internet. Since there is no way to see whos on the other side of that computer, you have to be careful when you are talking to people you don’t know from social networking sites.

One of the biggest dangers of social networking sites that teenager are unaware of is what they put on their profile. Teenagers put their names, where they live, where they go to school, where they work, even what sports teams they are on, which is all the information a person needs to find the teenager.

Even scarier, social networking sites are a world where the teenagers can play any role they want. They may not realize everyone with Internet access, including sexual predators, may see the pictures and personal information they post. If you search Myspace profiles, you can find scenes of drinking, drug use, teens posing in underwear, and other members simulating sex. You can also find less provocative pages, but potentially even more dangerous. Teens listed not only their names, and addresses, but even cell phone numbers and after school schedules. Pedophiles are using all of the social networking