SOCIAL MEDIA-THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE NOT SO PRIVATE

I am a member of social networks like Facebook, Twitter and e-mail networks like Hotmail because I want to be updated on things that are happening and connect with people. It's easy and efficient in terms of communication, like if I wanted to volunteer for someone, they'd easily contact me through email. 
I have checked my privacy settings lately, like for Facebook, my settings are private and the public cannot access my information if they are not friends with me. They are only able to see my profile picture, my gender and name. Other specific information, photos and posts are inaccessible to them. The information that I allow my friends to see are my photos, my posts, where I go to school, my gender, my birthday, games and apps I'm connected to, and things my friends tag me in. I've thought about privacy before, when teachers and officers came into the school and talked to us about online safety. They reviewed things that were pretty scary about online predators and how the things we keep online are easily accessible by everyone in the world if we aren't being smart online. So I decided to always keep tabs on my privacy settings and things associated with social networks.

For social networks like Facebook, there are always safe and unsafe things to keep in mind when posting. The things that are unsafe to post are specific personal information and inappropriate photos. Specific personal information includes where you live, where you work, where you go to school, your age, any passwords, bank accounts, phone numbers, family members and such. These types of information should be strictly kept to yourself and not accessible to anyone, anywhere. It is extremely dangerous for strangers online to know these things because they could use the information to their advantage and hack you, locate you and hurt you. It's creepy and very dangerous. However, we don't need to live like hermits and hide from social networks because we can still benefit from the world of Twitter, Facebook or email as long as we keep ourselves safe and post safe things. Safe things to post include random things other than personal information, photos of the scenery, ourselves (as long as we are okay with the content and where it may travel to), the games we play, and what we are doing. For example "I'm so tired" or "My I-Pod Died!" are safe posts because they are random and strangers can't harm you with those things. 

We all need to become more responsible users of social network websites for the sake of our private life and to stay safe from harmful predators online. We first need to review our privacy settings on the social networks we signed up with and make sure we setting our personal information private-or even better, not put onto these sites at all. A simple name and gender is okay, and nobody says that the things we post online need to be real right? A lot of people put fake birthdays, age, and fake names and there's nothing wrong with that. Secondly, remove pictures of yourself that are too embarrassing and inappropriate for others to see. As well, remove friends or followers that you don't know because these people have access to everything you post online, especially to your personal information. By removing them, it removes any chances of harmful opportunities of theirs to hurt you. It is very important to be responsible with social networks because things get traced back to you and others can easily track you and put your life at risk. It's better safe than sorry so be safe online! And the next time you post something, think before clicking on the post button!