Foot- I'm So Digitally Close to You

One thing that surprised me about this article was the anger that was first present when Facebook lost its last ounce of privacy. Ever since I joined the Facebook community, the newsfeed has been there. I chuckled when the article talked about how angry people were when it was introduced. They were fearing for their privacy. My first thought was, what privacy? If you are putting information on Facebook, newsfeed or no newsfeed, you need to be aware that anyone can access it. The newsfeed just makes seeing this information easier. If we are to use Facebook in anyway in our classrooms, this lack of privacy needs to be addressed and considered.

Another interesting thing that this article brought up was the idea of ambient intimacy. A lot of the older generation believes that Facebook is a bad thing. I have heard it a lot from my parents. They don't understand why I would put my information online for the world to see. This article talked about the plus side to doing this and having hundreds of friends online. The article talks about how the little snippets we find out about our friends lives build up to help us better understand them. We can start to see "rhythms" in their lives. Even watching the lives of strangers through Facebook or Twitter can be interesting. The article says, "Merely looking at a stranger's Twitter or Facebook feed isn't interesting, because it seems like blather. Follow it for a day, though, and it begins to feel like a short story; follow it for a month, and it's a novel." This is very true. So much can be learned about our family, friends, and mere acquaintances through social networking.