Social Networks Can Help Solve Crimes

Social Networking Can Help Solve Crimes!
I was reading “Here Comes Everybody” by Clay Sharkey the other day and it discussed how a simple case of a lost sidekick cell phone received an enormous amount of attention through the use of social networking. Apparently, the phone was left in a cab and ended up in the hands of a 16 year old teenage girl from Queens N.Y. As the story unfolds, I was amazing how this simple case exploded into something like an international spy novel. The story was released by someone with technology experience who posted it on MySpace and other bulleting boards that got around very quickly to others who became interested in assisting with trying to locate the phone for his friend who had all of her upcoming wedding plans and contact information in this phone.
I don’t think that this should have gone as far as involving the NYPD to arrest the girl who had it because it was lost property in the first place. This could have been brought to a small claims court by the owner of the phone instead of going this far. Many people felt that returning something that was lost for the rightful owner is something a Good Samaritan would do and I agree with this fully. In fact, the other day, a boy that is my neighbour left his basket ball on my property and left for the week on vacation. I kept the ball and returned it to him when I saw him the other day and he and his parents was very grateful for my good deed. This world would be a better place if people would think of others before they act.
Well back to social networking. Because of the amount of social networking involved in this story, it showed a good example of how many people can be connected by this new technology. All you have to do now is post an interesting story and see how many people read, respond or comment on it. We have started to give out so much of our personal information through sending photos, emails and using Social Networking Websites (SNW), that we call attention to ourselves whether we want to or not. With the speed of the internet, our information can travel at the speed of light and once you hit the button and send it, it is hard to retract or control it. This can be a problem! Therefore, what do we do to control it?