Information Cornucopia

Making an online portfolio or personal home page or participating on a site like Facebook requires you to divulge information about yourself online. This information then becomes visible to anyone on the Web, including your family, your (future) employers, your friends, your boyfriend or girlfriend, and your exes. Due to the blatant indiscretion to privacy, one must decide what is suitable personal information to disclose on the web. To decide, one must consider how one will appear in pictures as well as how one will come across when they join groups on Facebook, or post comments on both Facebook or Myspace. Not surprisingly, there are potential problems of posting specific personal information about oneself for all Web users to see. First off, the ease of access allows anyone, as mentioned before, including those that would potentially stalk another person, to see exactly who you talk to, where you go, what exactly you like, and what you look like in your dorm room, at the club, in the bar, on trips, with the family, etc.,etc., etc., ad nauseum. Not only are stalkers a problem, but jealous exes, and future employers can see who, what, and where you consume alcohol or marijuana. This makes hiring much easier or harder for employers that could use these sites to 'review' prospective employees. As far as these employers basing hiring or firing decisions on these sites, I believe as long as you put yourself out there, taking and posting pictures of yourself smoking bongs or offensive content about your life, work, or those around you, it's all fair game for employers to check up on you. Absolutely.
As far as confided or guarded information being uncovered using a Web search, that again seems to be fair game. As long as you put yourself out there on the Web, a public domain connecting people by common interests or popular websites, any information you disclose on said public forum can and will be accessed by someone you probably don't want to see it. To me, that seems like the risk nearly all college students, and the myriad of other users, take everyday when they log on, upload, and sift through the mass of meaningless likes and dislikes found on sites like Facebook and Myspace. If you don't want people to know you, what you're doing, what you look like, and who and what you like, then delete these sites from your mind and hard drive. It's all meaningless details in the end, yet people persist and wonder why the creepy guy in their class knows their name and shoe size.

**Disclaimer**

I uphold my opinions about said websites, but I must admit I am a member and user of the aforementioned sites. Despite the glaring hypocrisies, I must offer a defense. I am a resident assistant at Niagara University, and use Facebook to remember the names of the hundreds of people I see everyday. As far as Myspace is concerned, I have just about 100 friends and half of them are bands. The other half are just some of my best friends from home and others that found me on their own. Myspace offers incredibly easy and organized access to bands, highlighted with merch deals, pictures, and even updated and extensive touring schedules. I attend about 10-15 hardcore concerts a year, so Myspace becomes valuable in a pinch. Now that I have defended myself, take from this what you will.