Social Networking is creeping up!

Social Networking is creeping up!
9.23.09 L. D.
Since social networking seems to be the latest thing that people want to do to stay connected to family, friends and possible friends. I have asked most of my friends if they use a social network and most of them are using Face book. I use face book as well and I am concerned about a few things that I have heard about when people post a profile. Many of my friends do not get on everyday because they are too busy. There are a few who post regularly and some don’t. When they do post photos of places they were at, it is like I was also with them enjoying the event. This is a good way to keep connected if you are friends. The one thing that I have become very worried about is what they call “creeping”. This is when someone looks through a wall post, pictures, comments or tweets of someone that they don’t know or if they are not really friends with just because they are curious. This is kind of “creepy” because it is invading your privacy because you are not in any way known to the person who posted these things about themselves. I know that when you use these sites that there is a possibility of people getting into your personal post and photos but this is not right!
I have heard that there are some people who try and creep an ex-boyfriend or girl-friend to see what they are doing after they broke up. I would think that this is something like stalking a person online instead of in person and this can be just as frightening. This may be something like a horror flick, such as, Halloween where Michael Myers is stalking people he wants to take revenge on. Where does this stop? Do you really want people to know all of your business and all of your moves throughout the day? This is really none of anyone’s business. I would think that you probably do not want them to know that much about you so you better be careful about what pictures you post and what you say.

Another concern about creeping is that parents should be aware of social networking and how this can become a serious addition to kids that want to make friends and get attention from others. Their profiles can lead to someone creeping them and parent need to monitor their kids online activity before it leads to serious consequences.
It is very tempting to creep someone because they are not actually stalking them in person. This is done discretely online and it is hard to monitor this. The wrong person may become obsessed with someone they think they are interest in and it can be dangerous. What do you do to prevent “creeping”? You can set your profile to private. If you want someone to see it, allow them to see your limited profile. We all have to remember that social networking should be fun and an open communication that is safe to use to stay connected to the people you love and have been friends with and cannot stay in touch with because we live to far from them and is hard to communicate. Be careful what you do and beware of the creeps!