How private is your profile?

Privacy Settings

 It's a new age! It's an age where one of our main concerns is our profiles. Social networking has become a significant element in the lives of people all over the world. With just one click, you can find out what's going on in someones life by looking at their pictures, skimming through status updates, and reading posts. Letting our friends and loved ones know what's happening isn't so bad, but how do we keep people we don't like or know away from our profile?

The social networks, Facebook and Twitter, have several privacy setting that can be set to help protect you from individuals you don't necessarily want looking at your profile. But do all privacy settings work? Can they really keep people from looking at you? In this entry I will share with you how the media is currently covering current privacy setting issue and some tips they have for protecting yourself.

In a Feb 18th article in The Telegraph, Kara Grammell outlined specific, yet simple ways to protect yourself online while using social networks. Some of her ideas included setting up a new email account, being choosy about friend acceptances, checking your credit report regularly, and controlling your privacy settings.

Social networks are designed to make it very easy for other people to find you. Make sure that your privacy settings are set correctly. Facebook offers users control of their privacy setting within the "My privacy" section of the site. This can be reached by clicking on the "Privacy" link in the upper right-hand corner of any page on the website. From within the privacy section, you have control of all of your privacy settings and can fine-tune who will have access to your profile and activity on the Facebook website.

Earlier in January CNBC  aired a documentary entitled The Facebook Obsession. The documentary walked through much of the growth of the social network, talked about its positive aspects, but also hit on the topic of privacy settings. It told the story of a teacher who lost her job because she made a post on Facebook that she thought was only going to be seen by her friends. However, because Facebook had made changes among privacy settings, her post was reveal to basically everyone. Here is a link the full documentary.

Joe Cassels of techradar.com, wrote very specifically on how to manage your privacy settings. In his article 20 Facebook privacy settings tips, Feb 21st, Cassels highlighted the importance of keeping on top of privacy setting management because of the constant changes and new developments within Facebook. The article walks through several steps to keep this settings exactly where you want them.

Privacy settings on Facebook

As you have read there are several ways to be protect ourselves within social networks. Keeping up with the media is a good way to keep your awareness up about privacy settings. Try your best to keep yourself safe online.

Getting Comfortable with Online Dating

In the essence of the romantic holiday,Valentines Day, I thought it would be interesting to write on something that has to do with love and relationships.

Online Dating

Online dating has been around for awhile, but is still a fairly new method of courtship. Although it seems hard to believe, online dating is becoming a very popular way for couples to interact and start a relationship. In this entry I will be analyzing the popularity of online dating, the risks that go along with it, and then analyzing how the media influence our perception of this dating phenomenon.

There are several online dating sites; two of the most popular are eHarmony, and Match.com. According to the eHarmony website, there are 20 million registered users drawing on their expertise of match making. Match.com boasts that it gains 20,000 new singles to join their site every day.

Online dating leaves many skeptical, and for obvious reasons. With online dating you are unable to have real life, face to face interactions upon first communication. How do you know that the person you are talking to is who they say they are? In a February 2011 dBusiness News story, the Better Business Bureau warned readers of possible scammers using online dating sites.

“Every year, scam artists use romance schemes to generate millions of dollars from unsuspecting victims, which makes it vital for consumers to exert caution when using online dating services.” said Toby Barfield, president and CEO of BBB serving Eastern North Carolina. “Scam artists are constantly coming up with new ways to trick victims, and are even going as far as creating phony dating Web sites.”

So with risks like these, how is it that online dating sites continue to grow and gain users to take part in this new phenomenon of dating?

The media plays a part in how we feel about online dating. An ABC special on eHarmony promoted the very positive and successful aspects of the site. It focused on the site's intense scientific methods to enhance compatibility. It also showcased the very happy couples who were able to find love by using the site.

In a February 2011 CNN story, a woman talks about her success with online dating. She met a man online and their relationship began flourishing; first with phone conversations, then Facebook, then dating, and now they're married. A picture of the very happy couple on their wedding day was also included.

Along with these news stories, think about the online dating commercials we see on TV every day that depict blissful, loving couples accrediting their success to the site.

As we hear news stories like these and see the images that correspond, our perception of online dating is enhanced and we become more comfortable with it. Maybe we even decided to try it.  So in a new age of courtship, online dating may be the new thing. Someday, we might all be participating in it.