I "Like," Therefore, I'm Cool

Mackenzie's presentation today really got me thinking and quite frankly made me a little paranoid. Of course I know there are repercussions of stupid and inappropriate Facebook comments, but I really had no clue that this site could get someone in so much trouble. Isn't it common knowledge not to put your worst attributes on social networking sites (i.e.-- you smell terrible when you wake up, you shower once a week, etc.), so how can someone use the information on your page to get you in trouble if the person you present yourself as isn't a 100% accurate? I've seen it plenty of times in a variety of ways. Let's take pictures for example. I know so many girls who touch up their pictures to the point where it looks like a painting or a sort of caricature of themselves. Also, I know people who make themselves seem "bad-ass" or put things on their profiles that they THINK other people refer to as cool to make themselves look cool as well. This is all too apparent with the ability Facebook users have to "Like" something. I, personally, am not a big fan of "liking" pages, and as a matter of fact, I can count my "likes" on less than two hands..and for some people, it would take 15 hands! It makes me think do these people in all honesty really enjoy these things, or are they joining just to make other people think they are hip?
Ok, so I went off on a little rant, but what I am trying to get at is how can the government or lawyers use the information we put on our profiles as substantial evidence when it is in fact only a version of ourselves we put out for others to see. Yes, when the police see that someone wrote on a person's wall "I'm going to kill you!," and that person happens to wind up missing, they could take that completely out of context because they really do not know if that person was joking or not. Also, as Mackenzie also mentioned in her presentation, how can a judge find a parent is unfit because they flirt or write sometimes off-color things on their friend's pages? How does this determine how the parent loves and cares for a child?
Again, off on another rant, but I will leave you with this: Is Facebook a place to really get to know a person, or really get to know how a person wishes they were?

Cyberbully Is For Cowards

What happened to the days when school kids would beat each other up the old fashion way -- in the school parking lot, the park, etc. ? With the rise of technology, this society has spawned a whole new generation of bullies, most commonly known as "cyber bullies." I don't even like to use the term "bully" when referring to them, because being a bully gives off the connotation of having "guts" and and being a "bad a**." Now I am not at all praising these "old school bullies," but at least they fought their battles in person. These cyber bullies are simply cowards. They are usually the kids who got picked on by actual bullies in school, and they feel that since they are behind a computer screen, they can treat others the way they were treated, without the consequences. Cyber bullying has truly become an epidemic. I have been hearing way too frequently of young children as well as adults being bullied so bad on the Internet that they physically hurt themselves, even sometimes taking their own lives.
I recently read an article about a girl who actually lives very close to me on Long Island who took her own life after being taunted on a social networking site. Not only did this harassment lead her to take her own life, but a page that was made for her after her death as a tribute also got negative comments. How could this vicious circle continue on? It was mean messages that lead this girl to her death, and now even after her death, they keep coming. When will people learn that enough is enough?